Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry
by bluedarkyugi
Summary: A new addition to the Hikari family. Will Lan get to know them before they lose to the disease.
1. Painful Memories

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 1 – Painful Memories  
  
It was the day, it was a day he looked forward too but also a day he dreaded. Standing there all alone he looked at the grave. Hub Hikari. "I'm keeping my promise," he whispered to himself.  
  
"Huh?" came a voice from Lan's waist. Realizing he wasn't alone he grabbed his PET and checked the screen.  
  
"I thought I turned you off," he said.  
  
"Yeah, you also set my alarm so you wouldn't be late for school and you're still late," replied Megaman.  
  
"No way! I forgot it was a school day today!" said Lan in a panic.  
  
"It is, can we get away from here, it gives me the creeps looking at my own grave."  
  
After school (which Lan was late for), Lan went home and went on the net for a few hours. After a few hours virus busting Lan logged Megaman out of the net and went to go downstairs. At the door he heard his Mum and Dad arguing.  
  
"Just let me do this, it won't be for long I promise," he heard his Dad pleading.  
  
"Yes, and is this meant to replace Hub like Megaman was," his Mum said.  
  
"No, it's meant to help me keep a promise I made."  
  
"To who?"  
  
"To her."  
  
"Her, you mean..."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"It sounds funny hearing you talk about her again, you haven't talked about her since Lan and Hub were born."  
  
"I know, but I have to keep this promise. And I promise to you that it will only be for a year at the most."  
  
Lan didn't listen anymore and went upstairs for a few minutes while they finished arguing. When he went down his Dad wasn't there anymore.  
  
"Where's Dad?" he asked.  
  
"He had to go back into work," was all his Mum said about it, "Are you going out Lan?"  
  
"Yes mum."  
  
"Don't be too late Lan."  
  
Lan, Mayl, Dex and Yai were all in the park sitting down as Lan told them what he overheard. All four of them and their Navi's had something to say about it.  
  
"Are you sure that's what you heard Lan?" said Mayl.  
  
"Yeah, I mean you may have heard wrong Lan, did you hear any of it Mega ?" said Roll.  
  
"Yes and that's exactly what they said Roll," said Megaman.  
  
"What could it mean?" ask Yai, "I mean did your Dad have a girlfriend before your Mum?"  
  
"Miss Yai, you shouldn't really be poking into Dr. Hikari's past like that," scolded Glide, "But Miss Yai does raise the point of who is this mysterious woman?"  
  
"Anyone ever thought it could be a girl? I mean just because he knew her before Lan was born doesn't mean that she can't be just two or three years older than us," said Dex.  
  
"Dex, you may have hit it on the ball there for once," said Mayl, "It could be a similar situation to Megaman and Hub here."  
  
"Yehaw Dex is on the ball!" said Gutsman.  
  
"Maybe," said Lan, "It's the weekend tomorrow, maybe we could go to see what chips we can get in town tomorrow."  
  
"I'm game," said Mayl.  
  
"If I come then Chaiso is going to have to come to, is that ok with you Lan?" asked Dex.  
  
"Of course it is Dex," replied Mayl, "Chaiso is one great kid and we don't mind him being around at all."  
  
"I can't come tomorrow," said Yai, "My Dad wants me to go on a business trip with him to Netopia for the weekend."  
  
"Ok then, we meet by the metroline tomorrow morning then," said Lan, "I'd best be off home now anyway. See you tomorrow."  
  
Lan went home and went in the house and was surprised by the fact his Dad was home. He was even more surprised to see that there was a girl his own age there too.  
  
"Lan, great timing," said his Dad, "Let me introduce you to your new sister Sarah." 


	2. One Hikari too many?

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 2 – One Hikari too many?  
  
Lan stood shocked at this revelation. A sister, was she meant to replace Hub?  
  
"We have adopted Sarah Lan," his Father explained, "She has a terminal condition like Hub did but unlike Hub who just felt worse every day Sarah's mind is gradually deteriorating. Her mind will gradually deteriorate until she reaches a near vegetable state. Before her mind deteriorates more I intend to copy her mind into a NetNavi like I did with Hub."  
  
"How will that kill her Dad? She'll still be alive right?" said Lan. He was upset, first a new sister and now he knew she will die like Hub did.  
  
"Lan, the human mind also controls breathing and heartbeat subconsciously. If her mind continues to deteriorate then she will stop breathing and her heartbeat will stop," replied Megaman.  
  
"Lan," said Lan's Mum, "You will have to sleep on the floor until we get the spare room cleared out."  
  
"What!? I don't want to sleep on the floor," replied Lan.  
  
"I'll sleep on the floor if you want Mrs. Hikari," said Sarah. It was the first time Lan heard her voice. It was softer than he expected it to be.  
  
"No Sarah, you are not just here to get your memories copied, we are going to make the last few months of your life as comfortable as possible," said his Mum.  
  
"But..." started Lan.  
  
"No buts, go get a cover and I'll put some cushions on the floor for you," said his Mum, "Your Father is going to help Sarah move her stuff into the cupboard in the spare room."  
  
Lan and his mum went upstairs to Lan's bedroom. "You have a lot to tell me Dad?" said Sarah.  
  
"It's been a few years since I heard you say that, you will have to call me Mr. Hikari for a while if other people are here you know."  
  
"Yes Mr. Hikari, so Lan's NetNavi is his brother?"  
  
"We'd best get your stuff upstairs before your new mother yells at us," he replied, "Come on Sarah."  
  
He grabbed some of Sarah's bags and went upstairs.  
  
"Why are you ignoring me Dad?" said Sarah.  
  
Lan lay on the floor that night thinking about what had happened. He looked at his bed where his new sister was sleeping. He found himself worrying about how long she had left, days, weeks, months. His mum had said months but Hub had only had weeks they said and he'd hung on for nearly 3 months. He looked over at her sleeping figure again, she was quite cute he realized. Shoulder length brown hair and pale skin. She'd obviously spent a lot of time in hospital over the last few years. He wondered how the others would take the news. Maybe he'd take her with them tomorrow.  
  
The next morning Lan suggested to Sarah that she went with them to the town. He noticed she looked over at his Dad first who was having a rare day off but she agreed to go. Obviously excited she almost dragged him over to the Metroline 10 minutes earlier than they'd planned so Mayl, Dex and Chaiso got two shocks instead of one.  
  
"Hey Lan your early for once," said Mayl, "Hey who's that?" she finished pointing to Sarah.  
  
"Mayl meet my adopted sister Sarah, Sarah this is my friend Mayl," said Lan.  
  
"Pleased to meet you," said Sarah.  
  
"Same here, hey where's Dex?"  
  
"Hey you guys!" yelled Dex as him and Chaiso ran up, "Hey who's that?"  
  
"Lan's new sister," said Mayl, "Sarah this is Dex, don't mind him if he challenges you to a netbattle, it's just his way of saying hello."  
  
"Say what's your NetNavi anyway," said Megaman not wanting to be left out.  
  
"Yeah, I'd like to met your Navi," said Roll.  
  
"How strong is it?," was all Gutsman said.  
  
Sarah laughed and so did her Navi. "My Navi is a custom model by Dr. Hikari himself. Her name is Scyler."  
  
"Cilla? What kind of name is that for a Navi?" asked Dex.  
  
"No Scyler, it's pronounced 'Cy – ler'"  
  
"How strong is it?" asked Dex.  
  
"Don't you think of anything else Dex?" asked Lan.  
  
"No, Dex is right, who's the best Netbattler here?" said Sarah readying her link and reaching into her pocket for her battlechips.  
  
"That would be me," said Dex, "I'm the best in ACDC."  
  
"Second best," said Mayl, "Lan and Megaman are the best around here."  
  
"Ok then Lan, lets NetBattle!" said Sarah.  
  
"Your on."  
  
The NetBattle was short and sweet. Scyler and Sarah quickly beat down Lan and Megaman to the point where Lan logged out for the fear of Megaman being deleted.  
  
"Third best I believe you are now Dex," said Sarah as she walked past him into the Metroline. The other four stood there out of the shock of Lan being beaten down so quickly. "You four coming or what?" said Sarah coming back up the steps and finding them in a state of shock. They quickly followed her to the Metroline.  
  
Lan sat next to Sarah on the train, the others sat a few seats back. "I thought you were losing your memory," whispered Lan.  
  
"I am," replied Sarah.  
  
"How can you NetBattle so well then?"  
  
"I'm a natural, what can I say?"  
  
Lan sat back and thought about the battle, the BattleChips had flowed smoothly and she has anticipated his every move. Even the Program Advance he had learned from Chaud had failed. He had no idea how to beat her.  
  
Megaman in the PET was thinking too. Aside from the fact that apart from the helmet and armour Scyler looked like Sarah, that didn't bother him as he was designed to look like Hub, he'd done a scan of Scyler before the battle and discovered that if you took away the obvious differences then she had the same matrix and core program as him. 


	3. School Days

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 3 – School Days

After the weekend passed it was time for school again. Although they'd spent the previous day helping to clean out Sarah's new room Lan was still surprised by Sarah the next morning as she jumped on his bed to wake him up.

"Come on, come on, get up. It's time for school," she shouted to him.

When Lan got up he found that it was Megaman who'd set it up.

"Sorry Lan, when you didn't get up at the alarm I E – Mailed Sarah to see if she could get you up," was his reply when he asked him about it.

Lan went downstairs to see Sarah half – way through her breakfast and still going strong. She finished and then asked for seconds. His mum looked a little surprised but served up a second helping fast. Lan was even more surprised when she finished that before he finished his.

On the way to school Sarah kept running off all over to look at things. Lan didn't mind too much, it gave him a chance to talk to Mayl about her.

"She is weird, she eats as though she's never tasted food before and never puts on weight. And the way she acted this morning when she knew she was going school," said Lan.

"Well the weights an easy one. Look at her go like that, she's running everywhere," said Mayl

"Hey, what's this?" said Sarah running up to them holding a small white flower.

"That's a Daisy, Sarah," said Mayl, "They grow in grassy areas."

"So this is grass then," she said holding out the clump of grass in her other hand, "Ok then."

Sarah ran off again and Mayl turned to Lan.

"You have some explaining to do Lan," said Mayl.

"What about?" asked Lan.

"About why your sister doesn't know what Daisies and Grass look like."

"How should I know?"

"_Lan_."

"She has amnesia," said Lan hoping she'd fall for it.

"_LAN!_"__

"Ok, ok. She has a terminal condition that means her mind slowly degenerates, I guess part of her memory has gone"

"She must have spent a lot of time in hospital too then."

"I guess. Don't tell the others ok."

"Sure."

Lan and Mayl arrived early for school after the conversation because they realised Sarah had disappeared. After a quick search they had decided to go get Dex and Yai's help to find her. They arrived at the school to find that she was already there and had been introduced to Yai already. The pair were talking about rare BattleChips and were getting on well. Well, as well as someone who was arguing with Yai could.

"The most powerful rare BattleChip is Holy Sword," said Yai.

"No way, the most powerful is Holy Dream," argued Sarah.

Before it got any further Lan managed to interrupt.

"Hey you pair, I see you've met my new sister Sarah then Yai."

"Oh so your Sarah then, Dex told me about how you beat Lan the other day," said Yai, "Well done, it's about time someone put Lan down a place."

"Hey, just because Glide's never beaten me yet, even with all your rare BattleChips," said Lan.

"Just shows you how good Holy Sword really is Yai," said Sarah.

"Now, now you guys, look, Lan got to school early today so…" started Mayl before the bell rang.

"And I'm still late for class, we'd all best get moving now," finished Lan.

In class Ms. Mari started by introducing Sarah who sat down near Lan. Then she started to talk about the lesson.

"Today we'll all be studying advanced virus busting techniques. This is because there is an increase in advanced virus types recently and it will give us a good idea of how advanced our new student is in virus busting.

"You will all be split into groups of two to deal with groups of Bunny viruses. Now can anyone tell me why a Bunny is considered a difficult virus when encountered in groups?"

Sarah's hand went straight up. "Yes Sarah?"

"Bunny viruses have the ability to paralyze our NetNavis. That means that if you are hit by one you most probably be hit by them all," said Sarah.

"Good but can you tell me what the best type of chip to use against them is Sarah."

"Simple, Bunny is an electric type virus so wood chips do a lot of damage against them."

"Good job Sarah. Now if you all listen then I'll explain so details about…"

Lan was finding it hard to concentrate on the lesson. I fact it wasn't long before he started to fall asleep.

"Lan Hikari you wake up now! Just because you are one of the best virus busters in the class does not mean you have the right to fall asleep whilst I am talking. That goes for you too Sarah. Now I think you two should give us a demonstration of how to delete a group of Bunny viruses. Jack into the blackboard both of you."

"But I have no wood chips on me Ms. Mari," said Lan.

"Here take these Lan," said Sarah handing him a handful of chips.

"Um, thanks. Lets see Bamboo Sword and some Boomer chips. Great."

"We use the Bamboo Sword to get rid of most of them, then the Boomers should finish them off," said Sarah.

"Ok then. We'd best Jack In before Ms. Mari gets mad."

The two of them Jacked MegaMan and Scyler into the blackboard.

"Now remember Scyler your fighting the Bunny's and not me," said MegaMan.

"You think I'm stupid Mega," said Scyler.

"Stop arguing you pair," said Sarah.

"Ok, I'm going to release the viruses now," said Ms. Mari.

Ms. Mari released the viruses and the first thought that came into all 4 heads was "Group? More like an army."

"Right! Bamboo Sword, Download. Power Up!" said Sarah and Lan in unison.

Megaman and Scyler used the Bamboo Swords to cut the number of Bunnies in half. When the Swords effects wore off only a few Bunnies were left.

"Ok, time to use those Boomer Chips to finish them off Lan," said Megaman.

"Same here Sarah," said Scyler.

The pair downloaded one boomer chip after another until Sarah's entire supply had been used. There were at least ten Bunnies left.

"Looks like we're in trouble here. Ms. Mari, how many did you release?" said Lan.

"I only released ten of them!"

"Well there was a lot more than that," said Sarah.

"Can't you use the schools anti – virus to stop them?"

"I've just tried, I'm locked out the system."


	4. Bond of Trust

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 4 – Bond of Trust  
  
"Locked out?" Lan was starting to panic, "What do you mean locked out?"  
  
"Someone activated the security shields on all the Jack In ports and the keyboards aren't responding. That's what I mean," replied Ms. Mari.  
  
"What are we going to do Lan?" Sarah was trying to remain calm but was on the brink of panic herself.  
  
"Can you two log out?" Lan asked the Navis.  
  
"No," replied Megaman simply.  
  
"Sort of, Sarah has an emergency logout program in her PET," replied Scyler, "But I'm not leaving Megaman."  
  
"An emergency Logout System, but their only given to NetOps with potentially dangerous Navis," said Mayl.  
  
"No way she's dangerous Lan, she has the same Matrix and Core Program as me," said Megaman.  
  
"Oh, I can be very dangerous if I want," said Scyler, "What do you say Sarah?"  
  
"Lan, someone has got to have locked the system using a Navi, maybe we can unlock the system by getting rid of that Navi," said Sarah, "You and Megaman look for it, me and Scyler will delete these viruses."  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Lan.  
  
"I almost deleted Megaman Saturday remember."  
  
"Megaman, lets look around."  
  
Megaman went in the direction of the main control programs and Scyler and Sarah stayed to handle the viruses.  
  
"Now?" asked Scyler.  
  
"Go for it, but be careful and try to remain in control this time," said Sarah.  
  
The entire class watched as Scyler changed.  
  
"Style change," someone asked.  
  
"No version change. Normally my Scyler is Version 5.0a, custom built by combining the Scyler program with the Megaman program. This is Version 4.6 now. The original Scyler was designed to absorb abilities from other Navis but it went on a 'Data Lust' and became a Data Vampire.  
  
"Because of the complexity of the Scyler program Dr. Hikari was unable to completely remove the vampire trait by normal methods so he combined her with Megaman creating a stable program. However he couldn't completely remove the previous version creating this ghost like transformation."  
  
"Why risk it..." someone started to ask before watching the new Scyler fight.  
  
She'd already taken down 6 and was absorbing data from another two. She then blocked two Zaprings and went for the last two. After deleting them she went in the direction Megaman went in.  
  
"Lan, Megaman watch out for Scyler. I'm not sure if she's in control at the moment."  
  
Megaman had found the Navi causing the trouble. As he'd suspected when the mess started it was a WWW navi.  
  
"Elecman," said Megaman.  
  
"Well if it isn't that stupid blue navi again Elecman," said Count Zap over the remote connection, "Lets delete him again. Elecman go.  
  
"Elecman?"  
  
"Sarah, force her to Logout now! She's absorbing Elecman's data!" said Megaman.  
  
"Change back Scyler! Please!" said Sarah in a panic. Scyler turned around and seemed to notice Megaman.  
  
"Initiating Protocols for Forced Logout. Scyler Logging Out," said the computers calm voice.  
  
"Elecman get up!" screamed Count Zap, "Drat, I'll get you next time Megaman!"  
  
"Elecman Logging Out."  
  
"Megaman, can you restore control to the system from there?" asked Lan.  
  
"Already on it," came Megaman's reply.  
  
After Megaman had restored the system Sarah went to Ms. Mari.  
  
"Ms. Mari, can I go home to revert Scyler? She isn't in any condition to finish the lesson now," she asked.  
  
"Yes, but are you sure you know the way home Sarah?" said Ms. Mari.  
  
"I'll go with her," volunteered Lan.  
  
"Um, ok, it was just Virus Busting Techniques anyway this morning," said a confused Ms. Mari.  
  
On the way home Sarah remained calm. Lan tried to talk to her about what had happened.  
  
"It's ok Sarah, you knew the risks and no – one got hurt," said Lan.  
  
"What about that Navi?" she replied.  
  
"That Navi has tried to delete me more times than I can count," replied Megaman.  
  
"Pah. If I'd had my way he would never have tried again," replied Scyler.  
  
"You can shut up, I'm going home to restore your programming," said Sarah. Lan decided to keep quite for the rest of the way.  
  
At home Sarah unplugged Lan's pc from the net and installed a new program on it.  
  
"What's that program for?" asked Lan.  
  
"It's a more advanced version of the Navi repair program. I can edit Scyler's Core Program using it and restore her matrix. I also use it to place the new styles she gains during her 'Vampire Style' onto BattleChips," replied Sarah.  
  
"Why onto BattleChips?"  
  
"Scyler 5.0 cannot access styles gained by 4.6. So we imprint the data onto BattleChips. Unlike normal style changes though she can only hold it for 30 seconds."  
  
Sarah restored Scyler's programming and then previewed the new style.  
  
"What's that?" asked Lan, "It looks familiar."  
  
"Huh? Oh, ever hear of the Devil Chip Lan?" 


	5. Devil Ready

Note: For those of you who don't know what the Devil Chip is it was accidentally used by Mayl and turned Roll against Megaman during the N1 Grand Prix in the Megaman NT Warriors show Episodes – Evil Empress Roll Parts 1 & 2.  
  
Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 5 – Devil Ready  
  
"I was hoping to forget what a Devil Chip is actually," replied Lan.  
  
"What idiot used it?" ask Sarah.  
  
"Mayl."  
  
"Great! I forgot Roll was compatible with the Devil Chip!"  
  
"Hey, back up. Why is the Devil Chip so important anyway?"  
  
"Watch."  
  
Sarah brought up an image of Scyler V4.6 onto the screen. "Let's say this is Scyler V1.0, the original. Now if we introduce Roll into the equation and allow Scyler to absorb her data, watch."  
  
Lan and Megaman watched as the simulated Roll's data was absorbed and then when the Scyler changed style. To that of Empress Roll!  
  
"See, the Devil Chip was designed on the original Scyler style changes but very few Navi's were actually compatible with it."  
  
"Who was it designed by?"  
  
"Willy. He designed it so that instead of Scyler absorbing data and changing, the navi would absorb Scyler's data and then be controlled from a remote location."  
  
"Willy. The same Willy that ran World 3. The one I killed?"  
  
"He's still alive Lan. That was a cheap robot copy you killed remember."  
  
"Oh yeah. So why are you so glad anyway?"  
  
"Experiment. Remind me on to tell Mayl to make a backup of Roll and to come here after school."  
  
After school Lan, Mayl and Sarah crowded around Lan's computer.  
  
"Look if this is something on the Internet I can log in at home," said Mayl.  
  
"No, the computer isn't even connected up Mayl," said Sarah.  
  
"I thought you reconnected it?" said Lan.  
  
"I did."  
  
"Why's it not connected now then?"  
  
"Security reasons."  
  
"Whose security?" said Mayl getting suspicious?  
  
"What are you doing anyway Sarah?" asked Lan.  
  
"Ok I'll start from the beginning, Lan's heard all this before anyway."  
  
Sarah explained the relationship between the Devil Chip and the Scyler Program. Then she explained what she planned to do.  
  
"What!?" Mayl didn't like the plan.  
  
"Simple, me and Scyler have figured out a way to run the Scyler style matrix program through Roll, changing her skills and abilities to match that of Empress Roll without changing the core elements of her personality program," said Sarah.  
  
"Now say it in English," said Mayl.  
  
"It will give Roll, Empress Roll's skills but Roll will still be Roll. Understand?"  
  
"Sort of, so it's Roll in Empress Roll's body."  
  
"Hopefully. This is the test run which is why there is no net connection and I asked you to back her up."  
  
"So you are going to test something completely untested before on my Navi!?"  
  
"You don't have to go through with it Mayl, you do know that right?"  
  
"I can't exactly back out now can I? Everything is already set up."  
  
"It's a single click to shut it all down again you know. Less than half a second. I understand if you don't want to do it. I am not going to do any permanent reprogramming anyway.  
  
"And the backup?"  
  
"If it fails then I will have to delete Roll."  
  
"How long did this take to develop?"  
  
"A year and a half."  
  
"I'll do it Mayl," said Roll, "I'm backed up at home anyway so it's no matter to me."  
  
"But..." began Mayl.  
  
"She spent a year and a half developing something to make me more powerful. Don't you think we should at least try Mayl?"  
  
"Ok. You can try it."  
  
"Ok, first I'll download and isolate Roll from your PET. Then I download Scyler into the computer as well. Now initiate the new program on Roll, Scyler."  
  
"Activating, copying modules into Roll. Completed!" said Scyler.  
  
"Now activate the module Roll."  
  
"Activating."  
  
The 3 of them watched as Roll changed.  
  
"Physical Matrix change a success. How do you feel Roll?"  
  
"Complete success. I've retained my original personality matrix."  
  
"Are you sure you are ok?"  
  
"Of course stupid. Why would I say it if it wasn't true?"  
  
Mayl glared at Sarah.  
  
"Of course some of Empress Roll's personality Matrix may have been passed over during the process but it should be nothing serious. Just a bad temper probably.  
  
"Ok then, next stage."  
  
Sarah picked up Mayl's PET and messed with it for a moment, "Right, extracting files from Roll and placing onto a Blank BattleChip. They all watched as Roll changed back to normal. Sarah picked up the BattleChip and labelled it.  
  
"There one Empress Style BattleChip just for you Mayl. It will allow Roll to change into Empress Roll Style for 30 seconds. It's the only one of its kind."  
  
"Higsby will go mad when he sees that," said Lan.  
  
"Who's Higsby?" asked Sarah as she downloaded Roll back into Mayl's PET.  
  
"Local chip shop owner, he goes mad over rare BattleChips," said Mayl.  
  
"Well don't sell him that one. He'll think it's a dud."  
  
"Why?" asked Mayl.  
  
"It's programmed only to work for Roll and only in your PET."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Each PET has a unique identification code. It's kind of like the I.P. addresses computers used to use. If a PET with that code is on the network then no other PET with that code can access it."  
  
Lan and Mayl looked at Sarah as though she had turned blue.  
  
"I thought you were losing your memory?" said Mayl  
  
"I am, I had nothing to do in hospital so I threw myself into researching PETs and Navis. They're about the only things I can remember now." 


	6. Hidden Truths

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 6 – Hidden Truths  
  
I rubbed my arm nervously. What was I going to tell them now? I decided to go on with it a little longer.  
  
"I was in hospital from an early age. My parents came in about once a month I think. They never liked me that much because of my condition. After a while they stopped, I didn't notice for a year.  
  
"I took to taking my PET apart to see how it worked. The doctors encouraged me as it was the first thing I'd taken an interest to. That's how I met Dr. Hikari.  
  
"The doctors brought him in to help me learn about the PETs. Sometimes he couldn't make it so he'd send an assistant along. I think he knew my mum before as he used to talk about her. I couldn't remember her at all," I said all this to Lan and Mayl.  
  
"You can't remember anything about your parents," asked Mayl.  
  
"Not a thing, I can't even remember what colour my mum's hair was," I replied, "Is that bad."  
  
"No, but it is really sad."  
  
"They brought in new PET models for me to examine and textbooks. They even got a computer set up in my room so I could mess about with programming Navis. I remember I used to call Dr. Hikari 'Daddy'." I laughed after saying this. I hadn't heard myself laugh in a while I think and I was surprised by the sound of it.  
  
"After a while he brought in a new model with a navi installed. Scyler, he said that she was dangerous but he thought he could trust me. After exploring her abilities I began to release viruses onto the computer and watch her absorb their data. In fact I think I am personally responsible for the bunny virus itself.  
  
"After viruses I asked Dr. Hikari to bring me some navis so I could experiment with her absorbing skills. It was then I ran into the Devil Chip.  
  
"A few days before I had absorbed a bit of data from another girl's navi. Not enough to cause any damage but enough for a new style. I forget what it was."  
  
"Hang on Sarah, here it is a Ring V3.8 I believe it was," interrupted Scyler.  
  
"Thanks. Anyway a few days later I was studying with Dr. Hikari when this same girl runs into my room screaming that her navi had turned evil. We rushed to the computer system where the navi was and I jacked Scyler in to take care of it.  
  
"I just grabbed a chip and downloaded it. It was the Ring Style chip. Imagine the surprise the three of us had when there were two identical navis standing there.  
  
"We checked the PET and Dr. Hikari recognised it for what it was. Luckily I had a tornado chip on hand to deal with it. I asked Dr. Hikari for the chip and any data he had on it.  
  
"A few days later I got a delivery of six entire files on records of Devil Chips. Not computer records, folders of 500 pages each. The Officials had had 2 departments working full time to the collection and recording of Devil Chips. And those files were only the ones they released. 4 months later I got 8 more delivered. Luckily someone had broken the program code that time and included it with the files so I set to work.  
  
"I lost all sense of time. The wardens often found me asleep at the computer working on my project. I had two windows of programming code stuck in my head at all times. The Devil Chip's and Scyler's.  
  
"Finding no clues I asked Dr. Hikari for information about all the Scylers that been programmed as well as the program code as well. I hit the break with V1.0.  
  
"Six identical lines of code all relating to the physical matrix. It turned out that my research showed that the Devil Chip implanted these six lines of code into the Navi. Those that Scyler V1.0 could implement actually had this code placed into there physical matrix.  
  
"I also found something else though. This came through in the line of code that appeared to do nothing."  
  
I typed the line of code into the computer.  
  
"I'd never been on the web before and the line was meaningless. It turned out it was a web address for a backdoor into the WWW computer system. It was then that the Officials cancelled my research and confiscated the Devil Chip.  
  
"You wondered what caused the WWW computer system to crash 8 years ago allowing the Officials to capture 60% of the WWW. Now you know it was caused by a little girl in hospital."  
  
I went downstairs to find Dad sitting on the sofa. "Nice cover, good thing you based it on real events, how did you know it was caused by that girl anyway?" said Dad.  
  
"Lucky guess." 


	7. Double Devil

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 7 – Double Devil  
  
It was a few days later that Mayl talked to Sarah about the Empress Style Chip again. Something had been bugging her about it.  
  
"Sarah, why did you make it so it would only work on my PET anyway?" asked Mayl.  
  
"Imagine if the WWW got hold of that chip and it worked on their PETs. You saw what Scyler did that day at school. Empress Style has similar abilities offering more control over viruses than any other style or navi," replied Sarah.  
  
"But still..." Mayl started to say.  
  
"Hey, I just realised. I haven't seen Higsby's Shop yet. Want to go there after school?" interrupted Sarah.  
  
"Uh, sure. But about..." Mayl started again.  
  
"I'll meet you outside school after the lesson then. I've got that work from the other day to catch up on at the moment," said Sarah running down the corridor, "See you in class."  
  
Mayl realised then that she had forgotten what she was going to say. "Forget it," she thought, "It probably wasn't important."  
  
Mayl headed to the cafeteria for her dinner then realised something else. Apart from Saturday in the city when they stopped at a restaurant she had never seen Sarah eat. She sat down next to Lan who was sitting and eating whilst waiting for the others and asked him about it.  
  
"You say she eats a lot. Why doesn't she eat here?" asked Mayl.  
  
"Mum gives her a packed lunch," he said between mouthfuls, "Apparently she needs a strict diet and the school can't provide it."  
  
"Oh right," said Mayl. At that Dex sat down at the table which stopped the conversation. Or should have.  
  
"Where's Sarah?" asked Yai as she sat down.  
  
Lan nearly banged his head on the table out of frustration just as his PET started beeping.  
  
"Lan phone call from dad," said Megaman.  
  
Lan answered it to hear his Dad's voice.  
  
"Lan, I forgot to mention it this morning but I'm going to pick Sarah up at dinnertime today as she as a hospital appointment."  
  
"Dad. It is dinnertime," replied Lan.  
  
"What!? I'd best get moving!" said his Dad in a panic.  
  
Lan put his PET on the table where it had been.  
  
"Sarah has to go to the hospital this afternoon for a check-up," he said, "From the looks of things she won't be back for the rest of school."  
  
Dr. Hikari and Sarah walked into SciLab. Dr. Hikari showed the security guard his pass. The guard nodded and let them through. The two of them went up to Dr. Hikari's lab.  
  
After school Lan and Megaman ended up on Mayl's Homepage talking to Roll and Mayl about Sarah.  
  
"Sarah is weird Lan. I mean rushed to hospital like that," said Mayl.  
  
"Mayl, Dr. Hikari is a little forgetful about things if it isn't related to navis you know," said Roll.  
  
"But still. Hey is it me or is it cold in here?"  
  
"It is cold Mayl, hang on I'll nip over to the thermostat to check it out," said Roll heading to the thermostat.  
  
"Roll!" screamed Mayl a few minutes later.  
  
"Lan, there's loads of water viruses in my thermostat," she said to Lan opening up a window on the computer.  
  
"Megaman head over there now," said Lan.  
  
"On it already bro," came Megaman's reply.  
  
_A few minutes later in SciLab.  
_  
"There, your condition is still getting worse but at a slower rate," said Dr. Hikari, "I estimate you have a year left if you follow my advice."  
  
Beep beep, beep beep.  
  
"E – mail from Lan, Sarah. It's marked urgent, shall I open it?" said Scyler.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Sarah, if you can get at a computer head to Mayl's house and into the thermostat. There's a powerful water navi there and it's almost taken Megaman and Roll out," read Scyler, "We may need some help with this one Sarah."  
  
"Your own son's life is on the line Dad. Will you let him die now?"  
  
"Go. Do it."  
  
In the thermostat the Navi laughed over the almost broken bodies of Megaman and Roll.  
  
"So this is the great and all powerful Megaman? You're nothing to me! I am the powerful Poseidman, god of water," said the Navi.  
  
"I think your toast," said Scyler who had just jacked in.  
  
"Megaman Jack out. I only have one SubEnergy chip and Roll can help me more now," said Scyler.  
  
"You can't take him on your own," said Megaman.  
  
"Help is on the way Mega," said Scyler.  
  
Megaman struggled to get up  
  
"Stick around if you want just don't get in the way."  
  
Scyler threw the SubEnergy chip over to Roll who recovered HP. Then another navi jacked in.  
  
"1.5! So you made it," said Scyler.  
  
"5.0, I had a feeling it was you two," said the new addition.  
  
"Roll, Megaman, this is Scyler Version 1.5. It was developed to remove the need to absorb data but for some reason her data started to slowly degrade. She now attempts to destroy 1.0 before her death. She and Sarah are good 'friends' for want of a better word," said Scyler.  
  
(A/N: Scyler V5.0 will be referred to as Scyler and V1.5 will be referred too as V1.5).  
  
"A Roll, did you perfect it then?"  
  
Scyler nodded.  
  
"Good, get rid of the blue one if he's a friend."  
  
"You heard her Mega," said Scyler.  
  
"No."  
  
"It's going to be too dangerous in here in a moment for you. Leave now!" said V1.5  
  
"Mayl, Sarah's sending BattleChip Data over to you. It's special elemental data allowing you to change the alignment of your navi if it's a neutral one."  
  
"Got it."  
  
"How long have you two got for style change?" asked V1.5  
  
"30 seconds."  
  
"Log Out after 30 seconds then."  
  
Scyler and V1.5 changed to Roll style.  
  
"BattleChip In, Download, Empress Style Power Up!" said Mayl.  
  
Roll braced herself for the pain that had come with the Devil Chip transformation. It didn't come. Instead she felt herself change and realised something.  
  
"This time I'm in control. The Devil Chip told me what my data must be, this time it's telling my data what it can be. I can go as far as I want or not go at all."  
  
Poseidman watched as the three navis all changed to look like each other.  
  
"BattleChip In, Element Change, Lighting Power Up!" said Mayl and with a shock Poseidman realised that all three of them were lighting element now.  
  
"Empress Whip," yelled the middle one as it went to attack. Poseidman jumped back only to be hit by another from behind.  
  
The attack paralysed him and he fell to the floor as they all attacked again. Unfortunately then, the 30 seconds wore out.


	8. Electric Dance

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 8 – Electric Dance  
  
Roll and Scyler both changed back to normal.  
  
"Log out now, both of you!" shouted V1.5  
  
Roll quickly logged out.  
  
"5.0 log out now!" screamed V1.5  
  
"No way 1.5. I'm not leaving," said Scyler  
  
Poseidman chose that moment to attack.  
  
"Tidal Wave!"  
  
A wall of water knocked both Scyler and V1.5 of their feet. They landed a near to a washed up Megaman.  
  
Megaman tried to get up and failed.  
  
"Fool I told you to go," said V1.5.  
  
"I won't leave Scyler on her own with you," replied Megaman, "I have a plan anyway."  
  
"What?" said V1.5.  
  
"The other day Scyler gained a new style. Elecman style. If she combines her attack from Elecman Style from mine when I'm in MetalSoul then the two may fuse to become more powerful."  
  
"Good plan. Scyler, get Sarah to change your style. Megaman use the MetalSoul soul union," said V1.5.  
  
"I heard her bro," said Lan, "BattleChip In, Unite, MetalSoul!"  
  
Scyler changed to her Elecman style. Her colouring mainly stayed purple but gained yellow streaks. She also gained Elecman's spark plug backpack.  
  
"Zapring go," yelled Scyler.  
  
"MetalDisk go," yelled Megaman.  
  
The two attacks reached the same point and the MetalDisk flew straight through the Zapring.  
  
"It failed," said Megaman in shock.  
  
"No it didn't," said Scyler as she noticed the lighting bolts now flowing around the disk.  
  
The disk flew straight for Poseidman.  
  
"As if that will stop me!" he laughed straight before the disk hit him, "Argh!"  
  
"Poseidman Logging Out."  
  
"Oh yeah, best team ever!" yelled Megaman and Scyler giving themselves a high five.  
  
"You should have logged him out," said V1.5 to Lan while the pair were celebrating.  
  
"If I had you wouldn't have won," replied Lan.  
  
"That's not the point, you put your own brother in danger Lan," she said before logging out.  
  
"Hey, how'd you know my name?" said Lan. But she had already gone.  
  
In SciLab Sarah fell to the floor clutching her head as Dr. Hikari ran up to catch her. 


	9. Fair Fun

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 9 – Fair Fun  
  
I fell to the floor in Dad's lab. I grabbed my head as it was hurting badly. I found it hard to think straight.  
  
"Sarah, Sarah! Are you ok?" my Dad said before I passed out.  
  
I woke up in my bed at home and heard Dad talking to Lan outside the door.  
  
"She collapsed on the way home Lan," said Dad.  
  
"Why did she collapse? Is she getting worse?" Lan said. I could tell his concern through the door.  
  
"It's nothing, one of the side effects of the disease is mild epilepsy. She blacked out along the motorway because I was going a little too fast for her and she was looking out the side window," said Dad, "The speed combined with the trees at the roadside caused her to black out."  
  
"What do you mean Motorway? I thought you'd take the Metroline?" said Lan.  
  
"We would have but the hospital at the Beach doesn't have the facilities to slow down her progress. I had to take her to another hospital."  
  
"Will she be awake tomorrow Dad?"  
  
"Maybe. Why Lan?"  
  
"Mayl and I were thinking of taking her to the fair that came in town today."  
  
"We'll see how she is in the morning Lan."  
  
The conversation stopped. I felt a little guilty about all the lies that we'd told Lan. I rolled over and eventually went to sleep.  
  
The next morning I woke up and went downstairs to find Lan already at the table.  
  
"Your up early," I said.  
  
"Compared to Mayl, Ms. Mari is pretty nice when she deals with Lan being late," said Megaman from Lan's PET. I laughed at this, Ms. Mari had given the 4 of them extra homework that night for being late. I only got out of it because I had to go to the principle's office beforehand.  
  
"So what have you two got planned for today?" asked Dad.  
  
"Well I was going to go online and see if there was any link between the attacks at school and at Mayl's and to see if there were any similar ones recently if Lan's got nothing planned for today," I said.  
  
"No you're not. You can leave that to the officials. Lan was planning on taking you to the fair in town today if you want to go," said Dad.  
  
"Ok then Mr. Hikari," I said.  
  
"Mayl should be here in a bit," said Megaman, "Lets hope we don't get a repeat of your last date Lan. I was worn out after all that NetBattling."  
  
"It's not a date!" said Lan, his face going red.  
  
Everyone except Lan laughed. "Why, what happened last time?" I asked.  
  
Lan told me. I laughed again.  
  
"It wasn't funny, Mayl's life was in danger from a robot princess with an axe!" said Lan.  
  
"I know but wherever you go you always attract trouble don't you Lan," I said.  
  
I think that got to Lan more than anything as he ate in silence until Mayl arrived. Mrs. Hikari opened the door to Mayl when she knocked.  
  
"Hello Mrs. Hikari, is he awake yet or have you got to wake him?" said Mayl.  
  
"They're ready to go Mayl, just let them finish eating their breakfast. Do you want something to eat Mayl?" said Mrs. Hikari.  
  
"No thank you Mrs. Hikari."  
  
We finished and grabbed our jackets. We left and arrived at the fair just in time for the opening. We went in and started to look around when Mayl suddenly stopped and pointing at a woman by a ride and said, "Hey Lan, isn't that..."  
  
"Maddy!" finished Lan.  
  
The woman seemed to notice us and waved us over. "Why if it isn't Lan and Mayl? I haven't seen you pair around for a while now."  
  
"I thought you were still a WWW official," said Mayl, "I didn't know you were working for a funfair."  
  
"Ha ha," laughed Maddy, "No, me, Yahoot and Match have finished with Wily and the WWW now. In fact out of the four of us only Zapps is still working for him."  
  
"We know, Lan and Sarah beat him and Elecman the other day," said Mayl, "What are Yahoot and Match doing now anyway?"  
  
"Yahoot and Magicman are running the fortune teller stall over there," said Maddy pointing, "And Match is doing a fire dance show over there. He should be doing another one soon, why don't you go watch and I'll give the three of you passes to my funhouse afterwards. I know Match will be pleased to see you pair anyway."  
  
"Ok then, we'll be back later Maddy," said Lan.  
  
As we walked over to the stall belonging to Match I asked how they knew Maddy.  
  
"She used to be a WWW official with Yahoot, Mr. Match and Count Zapp," said Lan, "She's tried to kill Megaman on more than one occasion. All four of them have."  
  
"Well you've got me to protect him now," said Scyler.  
  
We all cheered as the show began. He was good at it and everyone applauded at the end. He saw us in the crowd and after the act waved us over.  
  
"Lan, Mayl! Who's your friend?" said Match.  
  
"This is my adopted sister Sarah, Match," said Lan, "So your staying away from the WWW then?"  
  
"Yup. Clean for nearly a year now. They gave us leniency for revealing some more high ups in the WWW. Me, Yahoot and Maddy are working for the owner of this fairground now to earn some money and open a restaurant."  
  
"Good for you Match," said Mayl, "If you open it in ACDC we'll be regular customers."  
  
"Thanks Mayl. Why don't you go see Maddy and Yahoot? I know they'll both be glad to see you."  
  
We went to the fortune stand which Yahoot ran who gave us pretty much the same treatment. His navi managed to confuse Scyler and she was talking in rhyme for a while after. We went into Maddy's funhouse and it was obvious she had been talking to Match as she said, "Three tickets Lan, one for you, your girlfriend and your sister," as we went in.  
  
"She's not my girlfriend!" Lan yelled. The three of us just laughed at him.  
  
After we came out the funhouse Yai shouted us. She ran over being followed by another girl who I did know.  
  
"Lan, Mayl," said the girl. She looked at me for a second, "Why if it isn't Sarah? How are you doing now?"  
  
"I'm doing fine Mary. How are you and Ring?" I replied.  
  
"We're fine," said Ring, "I still have to give Mary a little encouragement to have fun but she's getting better at it. How are you Scyler?"  
  
We all laughed. "You pair make the perfect combination," I said, "Mary's the calm quiet one and you're the loud outspoken one Ring. Scyler is doing fine."  
  
"What are you doing here anyway Sarah?" asked Mary.  
  
"Lan's family has adopted me," I said, "What about you?"  
  
"I come and stay with Yai sometimes. We met when she was in hospital in Netopia once," replied Mary.  
  
"Hey there's a photo booth over there," said Mayl, "Why don't we get our photos taken."  
  
We walked over to the booth so we wouldn't exhaust Mary. Whilst we were walking Mayl asked, "How do you know Mary?"  
  
"We were in the same hospital for a time," Mary replied.  
  
"Oh, was it..."  
  
I just nodded.  
  
"Oh."  
  
We got to the booth. It was a special booth designed to take pictures of navis and their NetOps. It then superimposed a smaller image of the navis under the Ops. The navis also got a copy of the picture. We took about six pictures. The best one in everyone's opinion was the one with just Lan, Mayl and Me with our navis.  
  
After the photo session we went back to the funhouse and Maddy let us on for another free ride. 


	10. Alliance

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 10 – Alliance  
  
The five of them went into the funhouse and jacked their navis into the cybernetic version. They went forwards and the funhouse challenge came through the speakers. As Lan, Mayl and Sarah had been through before they knew it but they listened anyway.  
  
"Welcome to the funhouse!" boomed the voice, "You have the challenge of making it through the funhouse with your navis. Sometimes you will find the path blocked and your navi must search for a solution in the cyberworld. Also your navis path may be blocked and the key to their passage will be in the real world. There are many routes through the funhouse ensuring fun and challenges each time you enter."  
  
The five of them set down the passage to a right turn. "Hey, didn't we turn left here last time?" said Mayl.  
  
"It must force you to take a different path each time," said Lan.  
  
They moved down the path when everyone's PET beeped. Everyone's navi started talking at once.  
  
"One at a time!" yelled Lan.  
  
"Our paths blocked by a big CyberRock," said Megaman.  
  
"Everyone look around for something that may shift the rock," said Sarah.  
  
It was Lan who found it. After a bit of searching he found a stone on the floor and kicked it absentmindedly. Then Megaman said that the rock had disappeared. After looking at the stone they found it had a magnet in it. Lan pocketed it.  
  
"Put it back," said Yai.  
  
"Sorry, not this time," said Lan. Mayl and Sarah looked at one another.  
  
They worked through the house for a bit until a section where the lights went off.  
  
"Please say this is part of the challenge," said Mary.  
  
"I don't know, it didn't happen last time," said Mayl.  
  
"Lan it's gone dark here. We can't see what's happening. Is there a switch or something in the real world you can use?" said Megaman.  
  
"We were about to ask the same thing," replied Lan, "This can't be part of the challenge. There was no section like this before."  
  
Suddenly a light flashed down the end of the corridor. Mary and Sarah screamed and grabbed each other. The light came down the corridor to be revealed as Maddy using her PETs light to reveal the way.  
  
"You 5 all right? The lights have gone in both this section of the house for both worlds," said Maddy.  
  
"Yes, no ones hurt anyway," said Mayl.  
  
"Ok then, Wackoman should arrive in this section of the cyberworld with some cybertorches in a minute. We should be able to use access codes to go through the rest of the house to get you lot out."  
  
In the cyberworld the navis had grabbed each others hands. A light appeared which kept bouncing down the corridor. Ring screamed and hid behind Scyler. As Roll commented later they were all glad for the first time to hear Wackoman's voice.  
  
"Maddy said to bring you 5 some light," said Wackoman's squeaky voice as he handed around the cybertorches.  
  
"Thanks Wackoman," said Roll, "Boy I never thought I'd hear myself say that."  
  
"Ok, we have light Lan," said Megaman.  
  
"Same here," said Lan.  
  
"Follow me," said Maddy and Wackoman.  
  
They made their way through the house to the last room.  
  
"Ok. There's a control panel in here somewhere," said Maddy looking around.  
  
"Maddy, my code won't work on the door," said Wackoman.  
  
"What? That's not right," said Maddy trying hers on the real door, "Someone must have changed them."  
  
Suddenly the lights came back on and nearly blinded all of them. When the navis focused they found the source of the trouble.  
  
"Elecman?" said Wackoman, "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Lord Wily wants us to get rid of some traitors. Mainly you three," replied Elecman.  
  
Maddy had managed to locate a console and opened up a screen.  
  
"Elecman. That means Zap must be nearby," said Maddy.  
  
Count Zap opened a window in the cyberworld. "Lord Wily wants you three out of the picture. You know too much about the WWW to be allowed to live. Of course, you can live by joining the WWW again."  
  
"I'll never side with Wily again, and neither will Yahoot or Match," said Maddy as she plugged in her PET.  
  
"Shame, he had high hopes of you apparently."  
  
The others plugged their PETs into the console.  
  
"Oh dear. If you're siding with Megaman and Lan then I will have to delete Wackoman now won't I?"  
  
Elecman went straight for Wackoman.  
  
"Fire Arm!" yelled Fireman who had just Jacked in and decided to declare open season on Elecman.  
  
"You didn't leave him on that day, to today we will make you pay," said Magicman as he summoned a load of viruses.  
  
"What are you two doing?" said Count Zap in shock.  
  
"We've got a good thing going here. We are not going to lose it all because of the WWW!" said Mr. Match in his window.  
  
"Sometimes to aid others to see the light, you must first cause them pain," said Yahoot from his window.  
  
"But we were the best, we stuck together until the end," said Count Zap.  
  
"And we will if you leave Wily," said Maddy, "But until then we will fight you."  
  
"Very well then, Elecman attack the kids navis."  
  
Scyler moved in front of the group of navis. "Remember me?" she said.  
  
Elecman backed off for a moment.  
  
"Elecman, she isn't in that vampire form right now. Attack!"  
  
Elecman moved in for the attack.  
  
"One shot, hope this still works," said Sarah, "Battlechip In, Download, Ring Style Power Up!"  
  
Scyler changed to her Ring style. She took on the shape of Ring's body but her face looked more like Empress Roll's than Ring's and her fingers ended in claws.  
  
"Great idea!" said Mayl, "BattleChip In, Download, Empress Style Power Up!"  
  
"Fool," said Count Zap, "Don't you know that Ring's RingRang is an Electric Element."  
  
"But Ring herself isn't," said Sarah, "Mayl?"  
  
"BattleChip In, Element Change, Wood Power Up!" said Mayl and Sarah in unison.  
  
"Ahh," said Count Zap as he realised what happened, "Can't we talk this through?"  
  
"RingRang," yelled Scyler and Ring.  
  
"HeartBreaker," yelled Roll sending a long range attack.  
  
"Twin Tower," yelled Wackoman sending his Aqua and Fire Towers.  
  
"Fire Tower," yelled Fireman sending his Fire Tower.  
  
Magicman sent his viruses in to attack.  
  
"MegaBuster!" yelled Megaman.  
  
"Glyde Cannon," yelled Glyde.  
  
A battered Elecman lay on the floor. He was more surprised by the fact he wasn't being fired at again than the fact that he wasn't deleted.  
  
"If you give up now and leave the WWW then we won't delete Elecman," said Maddy.  
  
"Why are you giving me a second chance?" asked Count Zap confused.  
  
"It's like you said Zap. We are the best, we'll stick together until the end," said Mr. Match, "You saw what we did when we worked with Lan and his friends. This is part of being on the good team, giving someone a second chance."  
  
"Sometimes the bird will fall from the nest before it learns to fly," said Yahoot, "But it's parents will always return it to the nest."  
  
Count Zap looked at the three former WWW executives. He hung his head and said, "Elecman, release the door to the main control room."  
  
The door was released to reveal a downhearted Count Zap. He held his arms out in front of him.  
  
"Arrest me then," he said.  
  
Maddy just shook her head, "I can't see any netcriminals here. Can you five?"  
  
Everyone just shook their heads.  
  
"You're all going to forgive me?" said Count Zap.  
  
"Yes, but under one condition," said Lan, "You've got a lot of cash built up haven't you."  
  
Count Zap just nodded.  
  
"Then help your friends start up a restaurant. That's why they're working here. To earn the cash to start it up."  
  
"Yeah, ok then, I'll do it. I'll even work there to pay of my dept to you guys."  
  
A few minutes later the seven of them left the Funhouse. Count Zap and Maddy went to talk to Mr. Match and Yahoot about the restaurant. They stood and watched for a minute then walked off.  
  
"Anyone up for some more rides?" asked Lan.  
  
"No way!" said Yai, "I've had enough for one day!"  
  
"I'm with Yai," said Mary, "I'm feeling tired anyway so I'd best go to her house and rest."  
  
"How long are you staying for Mary?" said Mayl.  
  
"A week this time," said Mary.  
  
"We'll see you tomorrow then Mary."  
  
"See you," said Mary and Yai.  
  
"Bye," said Lan, Sarah and Mayl.  
  
"Well that sure beats our last date," said Mayl turning to Lan.  
  
"IT WASN'T A DATE!!!" screamed Lan at the top of his voice. As Sarah and Mayl fell about laughing, Sarah turned to look at the four former WWW members who had also fell about laughing at Lan. 


	11. Good Food, Good Friends

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 11 – Good Food, Good Friends  
  
It was a week after the day at the fairground. It was the weekend again and Lan and I left the house to find a small surprise. Across the street Maddy and Mr. Match were carrying a table into an old building. We ran across to see what was going on.  
  
"Hey you guys. What are you doing?" shouted Lan. They put the table down and turned to us.  
  
"Hey it's Lan and Sarah," said Mr. Match.  
  
"Thanks to Zaps money we got these premises," said Maddy proudly.  
  
The building didn't look like anything to be proud of. It had been left for two years I'd heard.  
  
"Are you sure?" I said, "The appliances inside must be crawling with viruses."  
  
"They are but Zaps dealing with them," said Mr. Match, "Yahoot's sorting the kitchen out and Maddy and I are decorating and moving our new furniture in."  
  
"Anything we can do to help?" asked Lan.  
  
"Well if she busts as well as you do, you can both give Zaps a hand to bust the viruses in the appliances," said Maddy, "We'll pay you for it if you want."  
  
"Ok then," I said, "Lets go Lan."  
  
We spent most of that day busting viruses alongside Elecman. The next day we went with Yahoot to pick up some new kitchen appliances and the day after that was school.  
  
"Hey you guys, where've you been? Me and Chaiso wanted to go to the town with you pair yesterday but you weren't at home," said Dex.  
  
"And you didn't think to E – mail or ring us?" said Lan, "If you must know we've been helping Maddy, Yahoot, Mr. Match and Count Zap." By this point Yai and Mayl had turned up too.  
  
"You've joined the WWW!" said a shocked Dex.  
  
"No silly, we told you remember. They've changed and are opening a restaurant," said Mayl.  
  
"You must pay less attention to us than you do to Ms. Mari," said Yai.  
  
"No I don't. I pay exactly equal amounts of attention to you guys and Ms. Mari."  
  
"Yeah, none at all," said Sarah.  
  
"Hey! Take that back!" said Dex.  
  
"Make me," said Sarah.  
  
"Oh, you've had it now! I'll take you on in a NetBattle," said Dex pulling his PET out, "Come on then, or are you chicken."  
  
I looked at Dex with an evil smile on my face. My hand went towards my PET.  
  
"On second thoughts Gutsman has been kind of sick lately so if you wait for a few days for him to recover then I'll NetBattle you," said Dex putting his PET away, "Anyway hadn't we best head to class."  
  
Dex almost ran up the stairs to class. The others watched and shook their heads as we started to head up to class.  
  
"Typical Dex. Makes stupid challenges then backs out the moment he realises what he's done," said Yai.  
  
"Yeah he claims to be the third best NetBattler in ACDC. He's only that because he's never taken me or Glyde on," said Roll.  
  
"Roll, may I remind you that it is not our place to comment on these things," said Glyde, "Our victory in Battle depends upon the skill of us and our Operators."  
  
"Unfortunately neither of them have got any skill at all," said Scyler.  
  
"Don't you start to," I said, "Its bad enough with Roll going on."  
  
I wasn't sure but I think Scyler and Roll stuck their tongues out at me then. It could just have been me.  
  
After school the next day I got an email off Yahoot.  
  
"#1 Curry is now open! Come on down for the best curry in town!"  
  
"Hey Lan!" I shouted as Lan was a little in front. I ran to catch up with him, "You just got an email?"  
  
"Yeah, what do you say we take the Mum and Dad tonight? We haven't been paid yet and may get a free meal out of it. Plus it would be a nice treat for Mum," he said.  
  
"You must have read my mind," I said.  
  
We went over to the restaurant to see how it looked now and were amazed by it.  
  
"Wow, you've really done this place up," said Lan.  
  
"Oh, Lan, Sarah, do you want your payment? Hang on a moment!" said Maddy.  
  
"Actually we were wondering if we could get a free meal tonight with our family," I said, "That is if you don't mind."  
  
"Of course, if it wasn't for you pair we wouldn't be open for another week. Unfortunately the amount we were going to give you doesn't cover a meal for four. It's short by 2000 Zenny."  
  
"I'll cover that, here," I said jacking Scyler into the register and transferring the cash, "There's a small tip in there too."  
  
"Thanks. Just come along tonight and we'll give you a great meal."  
  
On the way home Lan asked, "Where'd you get 2000 Zenny from?"  
  
"I have an account with about 60000 in it from my parents. It's the only thing I ever got off them. They put in 500 Zenny a month. I don't have much to spend it on so it's stockpiled over the years," I said.  
  
Lan looked at me in that way again.  
  
"Do you honestly think I'd forget where I got 60000 Zenny from Lan? And people at least have a good reason to call me stupid."  
  
That night we took Mrs. Hikari, no 'Mum' and Dad to the new restaurant. It had taken them a bit of convincing and Dad was still sure he'd have to pay but they went. After Mum's initial shock at seeing the 4 former WWW executives she had a good time. Dad was still untrusting and checked every piece of food carefully but ate all his curry. After the meal Dad got up to pay but Maddy managed to convince him that it was all taken care of.  
  
He still insisted on a tip and gave his complements to the chef which pleased Yahoot. I managed to spot Mayl and Yai with their families. Dex's mum was also there but Dex must have not trusted them yet. I think that if these four keep it up they could go a long way. 


	12. Good Food, Bad Navis

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 12 – Good Food, Bad Navis.  
  
A few nights later we arranged to take Dex out to #1 Curry. Dex the idiot he was didn't suspect a thing until we arrived.  
  
"No way you're taking me in there!" exclaimed Dex.  
  
"Come on Dex. It won't hurt. We've all eaten there and we're ok," said Mayl.  
  
"How do I know you haven't been brainwashed?" said Dex.  
  
"Come on you big fat lump," said Yai, "I'm paying so what's wrong with you?"  
  
"I know you actually paying for me to eat is rare," said Dex, "But you aren't getting me in there for love or money."  
  
"Come on, we aren't going to poison you Dex," said Maddy.  
  
"Yeah, we have changed you know," said Count Zap.  
  
"Just let go of the lamp post and come in Dex," said Mr. Match.  
  
"Come on big brother," said Chaiso, "Just try it this once."  
  
"No way!"  
  
We were all trying to pull Dex into the restaurant. We were trying so hard that Mr. Match, Maddy and Count Zap had come out to help too. I mean come on even Chaiso was trying to help us get him into the restaurant. We had ended up with Mr. Match, Maddy and Count Zap at the front and Chaiso and Yai pulling at the back.  
  
While we were pulling Yahoot came out to take orders.  
  
"What would you six like to eat?" he said, "Our special today is a beef curry pot with a special ingredient suggested by your Mother Dex."  
  
"What, you're following my Mum's recipe for beef curry pot?" said Dex letting go and making everyone else fall back, "What are you guys doing sitting there? Let's go!"  
  
"All that fuss and he was the first one in here," said Mayl as we sat down.  
  
"So what are you eating," said Maddy.  
  
"3 specials, 2 medium chicken curries and 1 light chicken curry," I said, "And we'll have 5 medium cokes and 1 small orange juice."  
  
Maddy went and returned with the drinks. I handed Chaiso his orange juice and passed the others a coke each. Whilst we were waiting the conversation turned to how I knew what to order.  
  
"I've watched you all eat here except Dex. I simply had Scyler make notes on what you all have. Lan and Yai always order the special, Mayl likes the medium chicken curry like me and although Chaiso likes the chicken curry he finds the medium too hot. Dex was easy to guess as the special is his Mum's best curry dish."  
  
Maddy and Count Zap appeared then with the meal. The only sound for the next few minutes was the sound of contented munching.  
  
"Ms. Mari comes here too," I said.  
  
"The others looked at me in amazement except for Lan who just said, "She's been doing some part time work here if you guys remember." It was true, I was getting bored after school. Ms. Mari wasn't giving out much homework and Lan was still brushing it off to play with Dex. Mayl and Yai usually went out shopping so I had come in once and seen they were struggling a bit and offered to help. This meal was, unknown to any of them, already paid for.  
  
After the meal everyone found out it was paid for and thanked me for it. We all went home to bed and woke up for school the next day.  
  
After class Ms. Mari gave us our homework task for the holiday.  
  
"Now you all know about the new restaurant that has opened up recently don't you. Now the owner has asked me to set a special assignment for you all. He wants you all to find out about the different curry dishes available. You will all choose a dish each and research its history, variations on the dish and how it is made. There is one detail though, you cannot ask at the restaurant about the dishes. And they will judge them and the best will get a free meal for 4 at the restaurant. Any questions?"  
  
We left the school that day with the homework being the topic of choice.  
  
"Wow! I'm going to start straight away tonight," said Dex.  
  
"What's up with you Dex?" asked Mayl.  
  
"A free meal for 4 is what's up with me."  
  
I turned to Lan after we went in. "I know the perfect place to start the research," I said.  
  
"YumLand," was all as Lan said.  
  
It didn't take our navis long to reach Yumland's net area. With their translation systems running at full we chose a curry each and headed to the square. It was ominously empty.  
  
"Uh oh," said Megaman.  
  
"Empty again. This is the second time. Head to the BBS you two," said Lan.  
  
"Hey, I'm the only one who gives orders to Scyler," I said.  
  
"Go on then, give an order," Lan replied.  
  
"Um, head to the BBS Scyler."  
  
They arrived at the BBS and started to examine the messages. Only one had any reference to the attack and it pointed straight at the...  
  
"WWW," said Lan surprised.  
  
"Why exactly are we surprised Lan?" I asked, "It's not like we didn't know who it was in the first place."  
  
A crash came from the next area. The two navis headed straight for it to find a navi there. Not trusting it they both aimed their blasters at him.  
  
"Ah, Megaman. To be honest you're a little late. And you've brought your sister. Lord Wily will be so pleased," said the navi.  
  
"Who are you?" said Megaman.  
  
"Me, just a solo called CookieMan," said the navi, "I hope you like cookies."  
  
The pair charged up their blasters when CookieMan covered their blasters in brown sticky stuff causing them to backfire. The force knocked the two navis back.  
  
"What in the net is this stuff?" said Scyler trying to pull it off and getting it stuck all over her.  
  
Megaman sniffed at it, then bit a chunk of and ate it. "It's, it's cookie dough?" he said chewing it off his blaster. He nearly cleaned it off before CookieMan covered both of them in it.  
  
"Megaman!" shouted Lan.  
  
"I have just the chip Lan," I said pretending to make a play of pulling it from my sleeve.  
  
"I never guessed you had something up your sleeve," he said.  
  
"More than you know," I replied.  
  
I inserted the chip and the wire I had pulled from my sleeve into my PET. I had been careful to keep the wire from Lan. I activated a few emergency protocols before jacking myself into the net. 


	13. Return

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 13 – Return  
  
_Sometimes I have dreams. Dreams of flying through the network again. Dreams where I can go anywhere in the world and return home in an instant. Dreams where I do what I was made to do.  
  
It's kind of funny really. I didn't really know what a dream was until recently. Lan and his friends have been nice to me and all I've done is lie to them. What kind of a friend am I?  
  
I can't believe I'm back on the net. Dad will kill me if he finds out. Apart from Dad and Scyler only two others know my secret. Oh and the officials who Dad had to inform.  
_  
The cocoons of Cookie Dough on Megaman and Scyler began to harden. Then suddenly they cracked open revealing two changed navis. Scyler had obviously absorbed some FireMan data from somewhere and her helmet had been replaced by a flame and the darker parts of her suit turned to red. Megaman had used his FireSoul soul union but the result was the same. Both navis had baked the dough and broken out of it. Suddenly both navis realised that CookieMan was in fact just a big shaped pile of Cookie Dough.  
  
"Wait, you're not supposed to do that!" said CookieMan.  
  
Both navis lowered there blasters.  
  
"Fire Blaster," yelled Megaman.  
  
"FireArm," yelled Scyler.  
  
CookieMan was nowhere to be seen after the attacks.  
  
"Aww, he jacked out," said Scyler upset, "I wanted to absorb his data."  
  
"Leave it," said Megaman.  
  
At that moment Scyler 1.5 Jacked in.  
  
"Am I too late," said V1.5.  
  
"Yes," said Scyler, "Megaman jack out and you and Lan go to SciLab and inform the Officials. Me and 1.5 will look for survivors."  
  
"Right," said Megaman as he Jacked out.  
  
V1.5 fell to her knees holding her head, "Argh!" she screamed.  
  
"Sarah what are you doing? Do you realise how stupid this was?" said Scyler bending down by V1.5.  
  
"It's getting worse," said Sarah.  
  
"Of course it is. The longer you spend on the net the worse it gets you know that."  
  
"It's not just that. The battle was just an excuse. I 'needed' to get on the net. I need to get to the undernet soon now."  
  
"You can't fight her, not like this."  
  
"You don't get it. You weren't programmed like me. It's my primary objective. Yours is just to help me. If I die now then I will fail my objective. I can't do that."  
  
"Yes you can. You were the one that showed me that I can break free of programming constraints. Why can't you?"  
  
"You were programmed by one of the greatest programmers ever. But me, I was programmed by the two best ever. Wily and my Grandfather. I've forgotten his name but he placed himself into Alpha to watch over it and make sure it won't cause the destruction it did before."  
  
"If you were programmed by the two best ever, then why are you breaking down?"  
  
"I'm not, I didn't realise till the other day but I'm reverting."  
  
"Reverting?"  
  
"Wily must have programmed me to eventually revert to the very thing I am trying to destroy. The original Scyler."  
  
"We'd best Jack Out now Sarah. You first into your body, then me."  
  
Sarah jacked back into her body. Then Scyler into the PET. Sarah swayed for a moment before she collapsed. 


	14. Awakening

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 14 – Awakening  
  
Sarah was in a coma for most of the week then. I half blamed myself for what had happened. We all kept watch but I stayed by her constantly. I was the first to see her wake and shouted so everyone could hear.  
  
"Lan, Mum, Dad!" shouted Scyler, "She's waking up!"  
  
They rushed into the room. Lan must have just come off the net as he was getting tangled up in his PETs wires. Sarah was pretty groggy and they waited until she could focus before asking how she felt.  
  
"Like a bus dropped on my head," she replied.  
  
"At least you're awake now," said Dr. Hikari. He turned to Lan and his wife and said, "Can you leave while I make sure she's recovering well please Lan and can you go and make something to eat Dear?"  
  
The two left leaving Dr. Hikari, Scyler and Sarah in the room.  
  
"That was probably the stupidest thing you have ever done," he said. There was a tone in his voice that Sarah had never heard before. "If it hadn't been for Scyler's quick thinking your cover may have been blown."  
  
"Cover? It's not like I'm secretly working for the officials is it," said Sarah.  
  
"You know what I mean! The amount of time you have left before I am forced to delete you decreases when you're out of your PET. That body!"  
  
"Why do we have to keep it from Lan?" asked Sarah.  
  
"Because he isn't as open minded as he likes to think he is. The concept of a human becoming a navi he can grasp but the concept of a navi becoming a human may be a different matter."  
  
"I see."  
  
"I am banning you from going online unless I say so from now on," said Dr. Hikari.  
  
"What!?"  
  
"Scy..."  
  
"Don't you dare call me that! You gave me this human name and you are going to call me by it!"  
  
"God Dam it girl! Just listen to me! Lan, Megaman and Scyler all feel terrible about your coma. Did you know you've been unconscious for nearly 6 days now! How the hell do you think Scyler feels knowing the truth about why you were unconscious and having to tell a direct lie to Lan and Megaman?"  
  
Sarah looked at Dr. Hikari. She got out of bed and pulled some clothes on.  
  
"Where do you think your going?" said Dr. Hikari.  
  
"To do something I should have done a long time ago," said Sarah.  
  
Sarah left and Dr. Hikari wondered why he had decided to reprogram her as a teenager. He noticed her clothes on the bed and looked at her symbol. The very same one shared with all the Scyler models. He almost laughed at its appropriateness. 


	15. Truth

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 15 – Truth

_I stood outside Lan's bedroom door.  I still hadn't thought about what I was going to say or how to tell him.  It was going to be my biggest challenge yet._

_It's stupid, before all this I wouldn't have seen this as a challenge but if Lan stopped treating me like a sister or a friend because of this, I don't know what I'd do._

I went into Lan's bedroom.  Lan was sitting on the bed.  He appeared to have been waiting for me.

"Megaman and Roll went back to YumLand and picked up on Scyler V1.5's signal.  She isn't a solo," said Lan.

"Are you sure it's her's?" I asked, "It could have been Scyler V5.0's."

"I thought that too," replied Lan, "They are 'cut from the same cloth' after all.  But there were three signals coming from there at that time.  The funny thing is, all three of them led here."

"How can you trace signals from six days ago?" I asked.

"We traced them faintly about half an hour after you fainted.  After that I called in some favours from the officials."

"And what officials owe you favours?" I asked.

"Chaud," replied Lan.

"Chaud the legendary NetBattler owes you a favour.  Pull the other one.  That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Ok then Scyler," said Lan, "That good enough for you."

_To tell the truth it was kind of a relieve that Lan had found out by himself and I knew him well enough to know he'd keep it secret.  But it was kind of painful watching him look at me like that._

"Who else knows then?" I asked.

"Just Mayl."

The look on his face was one of disgust.

"How pathetic are you making up that stupid story that your mind is dying?  You're nothing but data!"

_That hurt.  It hurt to think that Lan thought of me like that and it hurt to think Dad had been right._

"It's not like that Lan.  When we started this we thought my data was degenerating.  Now we know it's eventually going to revert to the original Scyler."

"Great.  Now not only do I know that you're really a navi who thinks she's human.  But you're going to become dangerous too.  You're less than human."

"And what does that make me Lan?" said Megaman.

"What do you mean Megaman?" said Lan.

"If she's less than human because she changed from how she was made, what does it make me?" saidMegaman.

"Lan," said Sarah, "Did you know the more time I spend on the net, the faster I revert.  This PET I'm in was designed to slow down my degeneration.  When I went on the net to save Megaman and Scyler I was putting myself in more danger.  Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Lan just looked at her blankly.

"Lan, is she so different to me?" said Megaman, "She exists like this because if she was stuck in a normal PET she wouldn't have much of a life.  She became like this to spend her last few months living a better life than she had.  Just like I'm like this so as I can have a chance at life."

Lan realised what he had said and how she must have felt.  He looked up to apologise but she had already gone.


	16. Sorrow

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 16 – Sorrow  
  
_Sarah locked herself in her room that day because of me. I kept telling myself not to worry about her but I did. Megaman is mad at me too for the way I went off at her. I honestly don't blame him.  
  
I found myself at Mayl's house hoping to find some comfort that day. To be honest it didn't come as a complete surprise when she went mad at me for it too.  
  
_"What the hell were you thinking Lan? First you confront her without checking the facts with your Dad. Then you go mad at her and upset her!" Mayl was in a really bad mood.  
  
"I didn't think Dad knew," mumbled Lan.  
  
"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard Lan! Of course your Dad would know! He works with navis every day! He probably built the body PET for her," correct that statement about Mayl, she was furious.  
  
"Why are you like this? She's just a navi Mayl," said Lan.  
  
"Just a navi?" said Megaman, "I've done some research on the Scyler series and she is unique as the second oldest female navi."  
  
"Second, who's the oldest then?" said Lan.  
  
"The original Scyler model. Its current location is unknown but it was last seen in the Undernet."  
  
Meanwhile in Wily's Lab on WWW Island.  
  
"Thanks for the snack," said the figure on the screen, "It mentioned you wanted to see me."  
  
"Can you stop draining every navi I send to contact you? Do you have any idea how long it takes to program them?" said Wily, "Anyway it appears that she has been online twice recently."  
  
"I see, what would you like me to do?"  
  
"Do not confront her directly. The navi she has been seen with is proven to be resilient. Contact him."  
  
"We are not on good terms."  
  
"I require to speak with him. You are the only navi who can go that far into the Undernet baring the blue brat."  
  
"Very well. How long does she have left?"  
  
"Less than a day on the net. A couple of months in a PET."  
  
The screen went off.  
  
"Soon I will be in control of the three most powerful navis ever!"  
  
Back at home Lan banged on the door to Sarah's room. "Let me in Sarah," shouted Lan.  
  
"Go away," said Sarah.  
  
"I'm not going until you let me in!" shouted Lan, "I'll break the door down if I have too."  
  
A loud noise came from inside the room like someone dragging something across the floor. Lan started to try and bash the door.  
  
"Ahem," said Megaman, "The door opens outward Lan."  
  
Lan pulled and the door opened easily to, "The back of her wardrobe?" said Lan.  
  
"She must be pretty strong," said Megaman as Lan tried to push the wardrobe forwards, "She may have just been pulling the handle to lock it."  
  
"And I suppose she's pushing against this wardrobe to stop me moving it," said Lan as he struggled to move the wardrobe.  
  
"How did you guess," said Scyler from Sarah's PET.  
  
"Can't you talk to her?" said Lan.  
  
"I've been trying. She just doesn't want to know. She even threatened to turn me off at one point," said Scyler.  
  
"She's been quiet," said Megaman.  
  
"She's thinking," replied Scyler.  
  
"Thinking? How can she be thinking when she's trying to stop me from getting in?" said Lan.  
  
"Lan, she's holding the wardrobe in place with one hand and isn't even trying," replied Scyler.  
  
"That's not possible," said Lan.  
  
"I'm afraid it is Lan," said his Dad coming up the stairs, "Sarah has safety protocols to limit her strength but if she feels threatened then she can disable them."  
  
His Dad reached the door and spoke to Sarah on the other side of it. "Sarah honey, move the wardrobe and let me in."  
  
"No, he'll be mean to me again," replied Sarah.  
  
"That answers that question," said his Dad turning to Lan, "She feels threatened at you Lan."  
  
"Why? What have I done?" said Lan.  
  
"I'm not even going to justify that with an answer Lan," said Megaman.  
  
"Sarah, I promise that if Lan is mean to you again I will punish him," said his Dad.  
  
There were sounds of movement from inside as the wardrobe was dragged back into place and the door being freed up.  
  
"Now what's all this about?" said Dr. Hikari. 


	17. History

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 17 – History  
  
Despite the fact that everything sorted itself out in the end Lan was still punished by Dad removing the chips that Megaman needed to do soul union from Lan's folder for a week. He did say that he would have removed his soul union ability but he felt that he'd need it later.  
  
I wasn't punished but Dad did tell me to be more careful when deciding if it was a threat or not.  
  
It was a few days after the incident and Lan was already begging for his chips back so he could NetBattle.  
  
"Please Dad, I need them to beat Dex in a NetBattle," pleaded Lan.  
  
"I thought you of all people knew that a NetBattle isn't just about powerful BattleChips or soul unions," replied Dad.  
  
"Please Dad, I need those chips," pleaded Lan.  
  
It was a sad sight to watch. Lan was literally following Dad around on his hands and knees trying to get his chips back. Dad wasn't giving though.  
  
"Aww," said Lan as Dad left for work, "How am I going to beat Dex now?"  
  
"Try using your megabuster and cannon chips Lan, you know, those things I used to beat you," I replied. Lan just glared at me. "I could teach you a program advance using cannon chips but," I started.  
  
"Please teach it to me!" said Lan on his hands and knees again.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Hey, you said you would!"  
  
"No, I said I could. I never mentioned the word would."  
  
Needless to say Lan came home that day the third best Netbattler in ACDC. Luckily he managed to get a rematch set up for the next week.  
  
"If I only had my sword chips I would have beaten him but no, my sword chips can be used to access ProtoSoul so I can't have them for a week now," moaned Lan on the way home.  
  
"Look at it this way, you learned were your weaknesses lie," I said.  
  
"Yeah, when I have no good battlechips."  
  
"Lan, your abilities as a NetBattler aren't measured by your battlechips but by how you use them. A true netbattler can win without using any chips," I said.  
  
"Yeah like you'd know," said Lan, "It's your fault I've got no battlechips anyway."  
  
"And that cannon miraculously appeared out of thin air did it?" I replied ignoring the first comment.  
  
"You know what I mean, if you hadn't gone into a mood I would still have my battlechips."  
  
"And if you had checked your facts and been a bit more sympathetic then maybe I wouldn't have gone into a mood."  
  
"And if your programmers hadn't made it so you would revert then maybe you wouldn't have come to live with me and I wouldn't be in this mess!"  
  
"So you're blaming all your problems on me and Wily now are you?"  
  
"Yes I, Wily?"  
  
"Wily was one of three programmers on the independent navi project. The other two were Dr. Cossak and our Grandfather. After the first attempt of Bass they developed a new navi. Scyler."  
  
"Hang on!" said Megaman, "I checked the records and they showed that Scyler turned up after Alpha. After Dr. Cossak left the team."  
  
"Emphasis on the 'turned up'. She was created and I believe she fooled Alpha into believing she could be absorbed when in reality she absorbed Alpha and became Alpha. After Alpha's capture she must have contained herself in a chip or something in order to survive the system crash.  
  
"You heard how Bass' connection to Dr. Cossak was severed when facing down the Officials. That's a lie cooked up by SciLab to keep Scyler a secret. In reality the very weapon that severed that link could only have been one thing. And at the time only one of them existed and it existed in Scyler itself. The DarkSword."  
  
"Wait, are you saying it was a Dark Chip that severed the connection?"  
  
"Yes. After that Dr. Cossak left the independent navi project and Wily and Gramps designed me. Wily had been the driving force behind the Scyler project so when he found I was been created to destroy his project he must have programmed me to revert to the original model."  
  
"But Gramps?" said Lan starting to say how he had stayed to watch the guardian program.  
  
"Wasn't as stupid as you thought. He simply placed a backup of himself into the computer system so he could watch the independent navi project take place. The two were linked so that both could act independently but gain the same memories.  
  
"After 5 years just before Dad became a scientist, Gramps asked to be deleted so that he could die in peace. It was the one in the computer system that worked on the programming. I must thank Wily for the pulse transmission system one day. If it hadn't been for that I wouldn't have been created."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Because no matter what he thinks, Wily is nowhere near the programming skills of Gramps and Dr. Cossak when it comes to making navis. If Gramps hadn't been transferred into the computer like that Wily would have effectively started from scratch." 


	18. Travel Broadens the Mind

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 18 – Yoka

_Lan has been trying to make up for his rudeness the other day. Although he hasn't admitted I'm human yet._

That weekend in the Hikari house was a rush. Sarah in an attempt to learn more about animals had booked rooms at Yoka Inn. Mrs. Hikari objected straight away and went mad when she found the rooms were already booked. Dr. Hikari didn't bother to object but only allowed her to go if Lan went too. Sarah objected saying that she had already asked Mayl to go. Mrs. Hikari said that Lan should go to protect them both then. When Sarah pointed out that Mayl and Roll were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves the argument started.

All as can be said about the argument was that Sarah found herself booking an extra room for Lan.

They arrived at Yoka for the weekend and unpacked their bags in their rooms. Sarah felt a little uncomfortable in the Inn because of the lack of technology but got over it pretty soon. Sarah wanted to go and see the animals there and then but Mayl and Lan objected saying that they had all weekend and they should go and see the sights of Yoka first.

Yoka was a small place but Sarah knew it had its own cyberworld. As they wandered around the exhibits Lan and Mayl constantly got hellos from people who they had helped whilst doing odd jobs to earn cash. Lan met his match for hotheadedness against Tamako who upon seeing Lan challenged him to a NetBattle.

Thankfully Lan had his Chips back then and beat MetalMan down again. After the match Tamako started to talk to the three of them.

"Your style changed from last time Lan," said Tamako, "We thought we had you beat for a moment there."

"If I hadn't pressed the wrong button you would have," laughed Lan, "I meant to press the download button but I pressed unite by mistake."

"You probably meant to do it but didn't realise," said Tamako.

"No, he probably didn't," said Sarah, "He's been battling without soul unions for a week."

"Ahh, but yes. You haven't introduced your friend yet Lan," said Tamako, "Come, I am interested to know all about her."

"Oh Tamako, this is my adopted sister Sarah," said Lan, "She's quite unique."

"Yes she is, unique to have you as a brother," said Tamako.

A couple of days earlier Lan may have made some stupid retort at that but now he just blushed.

"Aw Lan, your blushing," said Tamako ruffling his hair, "Now get moving, I am sure your sister wants to see as much of Yoka as possible. Take care of yourselves. Mayl, Sarah make sure Lan does not get into too much trouble."

We laughed as we walked off. Sarah asked how Lan and Mayl knew Tamako.

"She's been running that stall for years," said Lan, "And she was in a tournament a while back."

"I guess she nearly beat you then," said Sarah.

"No way! It was one of the easier matches."

"He means easier in that he as in he didn't have to use the program advance to do it. Of course he nearly lost in the process," said a voice from behind.


	19. Speed

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 19 – Speed  
  
The three of them turned round to face.  
  
"Kai!" said Lan, "How are you?"  
  
"Not to bad," replied Kai, "My NetBattling has improved a lot thanks to your tutoring."  
  
"No problem," replied Lan, "You're a fast learner anyway."  
  
"So what are you doing in Yoka Lan?" asked Kai.  
  
"Sarah wanted to come to the zoo," replied Lan, "Oh, this is my adopted sister Sarah."  
  
"Pleased to meet you. Has Lan given you any NetBattling advice?" replied Kai.  
  
Mayl and Sarah burst out laughing and Kai looked at them shocked. Lan just looked at them with a glare in his eyes.  
  
"I'm afraid it's the other way around Kai," said Mayl, "Sarah gives him the advice."  
  
"What do you mean?" said Kai, "He didn't..." He couldn't finish it off. He looked appalled at the fact that Lan could lose a NetBattle.  
  
"Yup," said Sarah, "Do you live around here Kai?"  
  
"No, my parents made me come with them to see the zoo," said Kai.  
  
The four of them found a small food stall and sat at a table. The PETs ended up on the table adding 4 more voices to the conversation.  
  
"Is that a Scyler model?" asked Kai when he saw Scyler.  
  
"Yes, why?" asked Sarah.  
  
"My father claims to have seen a vicious navi feeding off other navis on the net," started Kai, "He alerted the officials who told him that it was dangerous and he should get away as fast as possible. They also sent out a full scale alert in the area saying that the Scyler model had been found. He said that he never forgot the way that navi just drained data from viruses and navis alike."  
  
"That must have been the original," said Megaman, "Where was your father at the time?"  
  
"He never said. Apparently the damage was so bad because she had drained the server's data as well that they had to rebuild the entire server from scratch."  
  
"Is she capable of that?" asked Lan.  
  
"The 1.0 model was supposed to be capable of absorbing an entire network in under an hour. And that wasn't some small office network either. That was supposed to be a government network," said Sarah.  
  
"Ouch," said Mayl.  
  
"Yup, all a spy would do is download it into the system and then jack it out in an hour. It never got to that stage as a week after her creation a permanent peace treaty was signed by the nations of the earth."  
  
"No wonder she's resentful against SciLab," said Mayl, "She was built for a purpose that wasn't necessary."  
  
"I've heard rumours about her," said Sarah, "They say that she joined the WWW."  
  
"I'm not surprised," said Roll, "Wily is the sort of person to manipulate an evil navi like her."  
  
"The Scyler model is a Dark Navi model," said Scyler, "I always thought Dark Navis were given the blame for more than they deserve. I mean, one Dark Navi causes a problem on the network and all the Dark Navis are hunted down and deleted."  
  
Scyler noticed that Lan, Mayl and Kai were glaring at her and Sarah. Sarah just hit herself on the head with the palm of her hand.  
  
"So you're a Dark Navi then Scyler?" said Lan.  
  
"Lan listen," said Sarah, "Scyler is right. All a Dark Navi is, is a Navi that can use DarkChips without any side effects. Just because we're given a bad press doesn't mean that we are evil."  
  
"It's not the first secret you've kept from us," said Lan, "How do I know you aren't WWW members?"  
  
"Oh come on Lan, Dad may be absent minded but he isn't stupid," said Sarah, "He isn't about to let a WWW agent walk into his house, sleep in his house, eat food in his house and live in his house is he. I've had plenty of chances to delete Megaman and harm you by now. If I was a WWW agent don't you think I'd have done it by now? Plus the fact that Scyler is programmed by Dad. Do the maths."  
  
"Lan," said Mayl putting a hand on his shoulder, "She's right, if she was a WWW agent she'd have deleted Megaman by now. And Roll wouldn't be in control of the Empress Style."  
  
"Fine, but if you ever give me any reason to think that you are a WWW agent then I will delete Scyler and get you arrested," said Lan, "We'd best get to the hotel if you want to go to the zoo in the morning."  
  
The three of them left Kai on the table on his own. "What did she mean by 'We' Kai?" asked TurboMan.  
  
"I don't know," replied Kai.  
  
That night Lan was in a separate room from the girls.  
  
"Lan don't you think you were a little harsh on Sarah," said MegaMan.  
  
Lan just lay there and ignored him.  
  
"I mean she's right. If she wanted to delete me she could have done it that day when we NetBattled. She could have had Scyler delete me and made it look like an accident."  
  
Lan continued ignoring MegaMan.  
  
"Listen to me Lan!"  
  
"I almost lost you to darkness MegaMan," said Lan, "I am not making the same mistake again."  
  
In the next room Sarah heard the conversation.  
  
"Why would trusting me be a mistake Lan?" whispered Sarah. 


	20. Zoo Day

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 20 – Zoo day  
  
Sarah lay in bed that night wondering about Lan's reaction to the revelation that she is a Dark Navi. Mayl didn't appear phased by the news but Lan. That night for the first time in her life Sarah cried herself to sleep.  
  
Mayl woke up and stretched. A little disoriented she remembered where she was and got up to get ready to go out. She looked over at Sarah who had rolled herself up in a blanket like a cocoon.  
  
She looked closer and saw that she'd been crying. She went to wake her up.  
  
"Don't," said Scyler, "She ended up crying herself to sleep last night because of her insensitive jerk of a brother."  
  
Mayl looked at Sarah's tear stained face and thought about Lan's past. His battles against Dark Navis and MegaMan's fight against the DarkChips influence. She understood why Lan acted how he did but when it came to something like this...  
  
Mayl banged on the door to Lan's room. Lan came out groggy and managed to focus on Mayl. He stood blinking for a second wondering why she was there and got a slap across the face.  
  
"What do you think your doing upsetting your sister like that?" said Mayl.  
  
"I have no sister," said Lan.  
  
"Would it hurt you to trust her for once?"  
  
"I don't need to be hurt by darkness again."  
  
"She isn't evil. Did it ever occur to you that there may be a difference between Dark and Evil?"  
  
"Did it ever occur to you that she may be working for the WWW?"  
  
"Will you pair just Shut Up!" said Sarah.  
  
Mayl and Lan stopped arguing and turned to Sarah.  
  
"You pair yelling has woken me up. I'm going to get washed and ready and I expect you pair to be ready in ten minutes if we're going to the zoo," said Sarah.  
  
Lan turned and went back into his room.  
  
"Thank you Mayl," said Sarah with a faint smile on her face.  
  
"No problem," said Mayl, a faint smile on her face also.  
  
If Sarah woke up cranky then she cheered up at the zoo. She ran around looking at the animals and checking all the information the zoo provided like a little kid. Even Lan had to smile as he watched her run around looking at the animals. They got a bigger surprise while they were walking around though.  
  
"Hey you three!" yelled Kai as he ran up followed by Dex, Chaiso and Yai, "Look who else has come to the zoo today."  
  
Needless to say even though Lan was still irritated this morning by what they had found out the day before even he couldn't stay upset while all his friends were here. Before long he was acting as though the incidents the day before and this morning had never happened. He even posed for another picture with Sarah.  
  
Later that day the seven of them sat down to have lunch. Chaiso was naturally keeping one eye on the vulture. He wasn't taking any chances after his last time here. In fact when it was allowed to stretch its wings and flew close to the park restaurant Chaiso jumped and fled under the table with everyone laughing at him. Sarah and Yai paid for lunch between them. Sarah would have paid it all but Yai insisted after the restaurant meal she'd paid for.  
  
After lunch they went to watch a bird display involving the vulture. Chaiso clung to Dex throughout the show and watched amazed and frightened. He laughed when Sarah said that she was jealous because he'd gotten first hand experience at what a vulture can do in the air.  
  
It was a perfect day, they'd had a good time with their friends, the sun was shining and all their problems had seemed forgotten.  
  
It couldn't last. On the way home the 7 of them and Kai's parents sat in the train heading to ACDC station. They'd had a good day and even Sarah was tired. Then the train shuddered to a halt halfway between stations and the lights went out.  
  
Lan and Sarah felt along the walls looking for a door or a Jack In port. They found one and Jacked Into the system. Megaman and Scyler both landed in the train's cyberworld and found most of the trains systems drained of their power.  
  
"V1.0," whispered Scyler to MegaMan, "I can tell by the markings."  
  
"I don't think she's alone," whispered MegaMan back.  
  
Scyler looked around the cyberworld and spotted a piece of grey cloth in a programs hand.  
  
"It's worse than we thought," said Scyler, "Bass is here too. There's a piece of his cloak."  
  
Suddenly a high pitched laugh sounded around them. Scyler and MegaMan moved back to back and readied their busters and aimed into the darkness. Then Scyler 1.0 attacked her new model and Bass came in towards MegaMan.  
  
The two battles were intense. Sarah and Lan inputted BattleChips wildly only glancing at them in the light their PETs gave off before inserting them. Sarah knew everything about Scyler V1.0 and Lan and MegaMan had beaten Bass before but at their current disadvantages and being unprepared Scyler and MegaMan were beaten into a corner.  
  
The two Solos raised their weapons to MegaMan and Scyler and prepared to fire. Then a red blur flashed past striking at the two Solos.  
  
"ProtoMan!" said MegaMan, "But where's Chaud?"  
  
"He's in the next carriage. He says that we can't beat them so we are just going to force them out of the system," replied ProtoMan.  
  
Then three other attacks aimed in for the two Solos.  
  
"WoodMan, SharkMan and SkullMan," said MegaMan.  
  
"Even we officials aren't powerful enough to defeat these two," said SharkMan, "So we're going to keep them busy until we can boot them out of the system."  
  
The six navis fought hard and working as a team managed to stop each other taking serious damage. They fought for 3 minutes and SharkMan had informed them that they nearly had the system ready to boot them. They managed to boot Bass then Roll Jacked In.  
  
"Get out Roll," screamed Scyler.  
  
V1.0 turned to look at Roll and licked her lips. She lunged at Roll so fast that none of them could get to Roll in time. Roll tried to defend herself but 1.0 grabbed her.  
  
"See you lot later," said 1.0 leaving the system with Roll in her clutches, "You know where to find me sister."  
  
The power came on and Chaud came running into the carriage looking dismayed. But the most dismayed were Sarah and Mayl. Sarah had bitten her lip and was bleeding. Mayl was close to tears. Roll had been captured, and only two people in the train truly knew what Scyler V1.0 intended to do with her. 


	21. Preparations

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 21 – Preparations  
  
The eight of them clambered off the train at ACDC station. Sarah and Lan supporting Mayl who was still in a state of shock from Roll's capture. They climbed out of the station and Sarah turned to face Dex, Yai, Chaiso and Kai.  
  
"Would you four go home now please? I don't mean to be rude but if all eight of us try to get Mayl home then someone is bound to get in the way," she said to the four.  
  
Dex, Yai and Kai just nodded. Chaiso just clung to Dex like his life depended on it. The four of them went home.  
  
"Chaud, can you make sure Lan gets home without being involved in a WWW attack? I'll make sure Mayl gets home safe," said Sarah.  
  
Chaud and Lan made their way to Lan's house and Sarah helped Mayl to get home. She reached Mayl's house and knocked on the door. Mayl's parents answered the door and when they saw the state Mayl was in started to bombard Sarah with questions.  
  
"Look, she'll be fine but the best thing to do now is to let her sleep," said Sarah. Mayl's parents moved allowing them past. Sarah took Mayl up to her room and lay her down in bed.  
  
"Roll," said Mayl hoarsely, "Where's Roll?"  
  
Sarah just looked at Mayl and shook her head. "I'll get her back I promise," she whispered.  
  
Sarah went downstairs where she was confronted by Mayl's parents. After explaining what had happened on the train Sarah left and went home where she got the same questions asked by her Mum and Dad.  
  
The next day at school Mayl wasn't there. Sarah did say that it wasn't surprising because of what had happened the day before. Ms. Mari just continued as if nothing had happened but did give a warning to be careful on the net because two dangerous navis had been spotted.  
  
Mayl slept and in her dreams Roll was snatched into a dark cloud. Over her own screams Mayl could hear Roll screaming. Roll's scream stopped being followed by a high pitched laughter as Empress came out of the darkness and struck at Mayl with her whip.  
  
May awoke with a start and checked the clock. It read 4:30 PM. She'd been asleep all day. She knew what the dream meant and had to stop it. She got ready and left the house clutching her empty PET.  
  
In the Hikari house the same thoughts were running through Sarah and Lan's heads. Lan had forgotten his hatred for Sarah and both of them had united to get Roll back.  
  
"She'll be hiding in the lower levels of the UnderNet Lan," said Sarah digging out all her style chips.  
  
"I'll send an email to Mamoru Lan. He'll be able to get us to the UnderNets main server," said MegaMan already getting the email ready.  
  
"Mamoru?" asked Sarah.  
  
"His Dad built the UnderNet to keep the Giga Freeze program save. He took over as the guardian when his Dad died," said Lan, "We met him in the hospital. He's recovering from HBD at the moment."  
  
"Wow. I'd heard rumours there was a cure for HBD developed but I didn't believe them," said Sarah.  
  
"I wish it had been developed earlier," said Lan looking at his PET, "But I'm glad it was developed so others can survive. Besides, if it had been developed then, I wouldn't have had MegaMan helping me to defeat the WWW."  
  
Sarah just smiled and shook her head. She knew why they had won so many times. It wasn't rare chips or a powerful navi. It was a bond that had proven time and time again to be unbreakable. A bond of trust. They constantly lay each others lives in each others hands. Wily could never grasp the bond that they shared was unbreakable. She needed that bond to succeed.  
  
Lan left to get something to eat. Sarah looked at her PET. "Is stage one complete?" she asked.  
  
"A couple left but I they can be done later," replied Scyler.  
  
"Time for stage two."  
  
A few hours later Lan and Sarah left the house. Their parents were set against it but knew that both of them had to do this. The two of them made their way to the Metroline. A hand touched Lan on the shoulder. Lan jumped and the pair of them turned to face Mayl.  
  
"What are you doing Mayl?" hissed Lan, "This is dangerous!"  
  
"Lan, I have to go and help," said Mayl.  
  
"You can come just do as I say to the letter," said Sarah, "If I say drop your PET and run then drop your PET and run."  
  
"Ok then," replied Mayl.  
  
The three of them got on the MetroLine and got out at the correct station. Lan then led them to the entrance to the UnderNet server. Mamoru was waiting for them.  
  
"I've sorted the system so you can Jack In directly," said Mamoru, "I've also discovered a few illegal connections from the net. Nothing serious but be careful."  
  
"Thanks Mamoru," said Lan, "Lets get moving."  
  
The three of them stood in the lift down and waited. Behind Mayl and Lan's backs Sarah plugged herself into her PET.  
  
They reached the main server and stood in front.  
  
"Mayl, I can't stop you from connecting the PET but I would like it better if you didn't," said Sarah.  
  
Mayl said nothing and connected the PET. Sarah just shook her head.  
  
"This time I'm going to Jack In directly," said Sarah, "I won't connect Scyler up so if I'm deleted Scyler will be able to help."  
  
Mayl and Lan nodded. The Sarah pulled a wire from her arm and Jacked In. Lan Jacked In using his PET.  
  
In the cyberworld Scyler V1.0 stood in front of Sarah and MegaMan.  
  
"Welcome to my lair said the spider to fly," said Scyler. 


	22. Return of Empress

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Chapter 22 – Return of Empress  
  
"You were two fools to come here alone. Now I'll have your old friend delete you," said Scyler, "Empress, delete these idiots!"  
  
"With pleasure," said Empress stepping forward.  
  
"Mayl! Drop the PET now!" shouted Sarah.  
  
In the real world Lan looked at Mayl who was clutching her head. He stepped over to her.  
  
"Mayl?" he said.  
  
Mayl turned around and hit him across the face.  
  
"Get away from me you!" she screamed at him, "BattleChip In, Download, Cyclone Power Up! Delete those two Empress."  
  
Empress used the Cyclone and moved in to attack MegaMan and Sarah. The two of them, dodged and MegaMan readied his buster.  
  
"MegaMan don't fire," said Sarah, "Lan, Scyler is controlling Mayl through the PET. You'll have to hit her to bring her round!"  
  
"But..." said Lan.  
  
"Do it Lan! And disconnect her PET!" shouted Sarah.  
  
Lan hit Mayl who dropped her PET and fell to the floor. "Thank you Lan," she said smiling.  
  
"Empress is still attacking!" said MegaMan.  
  
"Don't worry, Empress still requires Mayl's PET to survive. If we can stop the connection then we should disable Empress," said Sarah.  
  
"The crest," said MegaMan.  
  
"That's right, if we can remove the crest then the connection will fail," said Sarah.  
  
"But we can't remove Roll's crest!" said MegaMan, "That will kill her!"  
  
"No, it will disable her and she'll lose energy. Empress will be forced to change back into Roll to survive," said Sarah.  
  
"I hope your right," said MegaMan, "How are we going to remove it? We can't exactly rip it off her chest."  
  
"You just need to know where to push," said Sarah changing style.  
  
Sarah changed style. The purple parts of her costume turned gold and he hair moved to the front of her head and shaped itself into a V.  
  
"QuickMan style?" said MegaMan.  
  
Sarah shot off towards Empress. She turned into a gold and black blur and passed by Empress. After she'd passed Empress, MegaMan noticed that Roll's crest had disappeared. He blinked a couple of times.  
  
"Now that's fast," he said.  
  
He turned and noticed Sarah was next to him tossing the crest like it was a coin. Empress looked at the crest in Sarah's hand then at her chest. Then she collapsed and changed back into Roll. Sarah ran up and replaced the crest.  
  
"She'll be out of it for a while but don't worry," said Sarah.  
  
"No you should worry about yourselves," said Scyler.  
  
"So it's come to this has it?" said Sarah.  
  
"Yes, but first I think I'll delete your little friend. Darkness Wave!" A wave of dark energy flew at MegaMan. Sarah still in QuickMan style ran up and jumped in front of him.  
  
"I hope I can still pull this off," said Sarah, "DarkAura!"  
  
The DarkAura appeared and blocked most of the attack. Sarah took the worst though and fell to her knees.  
  
"I'd forgotten, her power," she said.  
  
"Fool," said Scyler, "You can't defeat me." Scyler ran up to Sarah wielding a DarkSword. Sarah blocked with her own and a ferocious sword battle took place. They managed to block each other before the DarkSwords ran out. After the DarkSwords ran out Sarah ran at Scyler.  
  
Scyler prepared for an attack but instead Sarah somersaulted over Scyler and grabbed her shoulder in the middle of the jump. Draining some power from her Sarah landed and sent one of Scyler's Darkness Waves back at her. Scyler stood there and let her own DarkAura block the attack.  
  
"Stalemate," hissed Scyler, "How's about we catch up for a bit sister?" 


	23. True Power

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 23 – True Power

Megaman and Sarah stood staring into the eyes of the original.  Roll's unconscious body lay on the other side of the original.

"So you would beat your own friend?" said Scyler V1.0, "I must say, I am impressed 1.5.  And this must be your brother's navi.  Megaman was it."  She reached to touch Megaman but her hand was knocked away by Sarah.

"Don't you dare touch him!" said Sarah.

"Ha!  I can't absorb data from male navis anyway.  The Hikari's must have become great programmers to allow the latest model to do that."

"I can do it to," said Sarah.

"How far are you gone now? Can you feel the hunger yet?  That need to draw data from those weaker than you?  You can't resist it can you?  You try your hardest to resist but it's all in vain.  You have to feed.  Feed off that useless navi belonging to your 'brother',"

She almost spat the word, "He is nothing compared to you, just a useless piece of data who's only reason to exist is to provide a snack."

"I consider Hub to be my brother too," said Sarah.

"Sarah," said Megaman.

Lan tending to Mayl had heard this too and looked at the screen and a tear fell down his face.

The original slapped Sarah across the face.  "You've become weak and pathetic from living among humans for too long," she said, "You're almost as bad as the navis and humans you fight to protect.

Sarah held her hand to her cheek.  She couldn't say it was entirely unexpected.  She didn't exactly expect a joyful reunion after all.  She stood up and said, "I will destroy you here and now!"

"You! Ha that's the best joke I've ever heard.  You just think that the Devil Chip was made from my data.  You're wrong!" said the original turning and slicing at Sarah with a DarkSword.

"The Dark Chips!" exclaimed Megaman.

"Yes, those pathetic copies were made from my data.  All my techniques are twice as powerful as the Dark Chips they were made into.  My DarkAura is impenetrable."

"No it's not," said Sarah, "There is one BattleChip that can destroy it."

"Ah yes.  The Holy Dream chip.  Do you see one anywhere?"

"That's one of the rarest chips ever.  Even Higsby's never seen that one!" thought Lan.

"Let me introduce you to my most powerful technique then Scyler," said Sarah, "The core release technique."

All of a sudden the navi Lan's dad used jacked in.

"Sarah, don't use that technique.  It will leave you open and won't get rid of the DarkAura," said the navi.

"Don't worry Dad. It won't leave me open.

"Core Release."

All of a sudden from Sarah's symbol, the one that linked her to Scyler started to glow.  One by one spirits of the navis who's data she had absorbed came out to form an army behind her.  The original Scyler just watched.

The army was large.  Sarah had spent most of her life absorbing navis and Lan and Megaman realised why.

"She was simply preparing for this technique all along," realised Lan and Megaman simultaneously.

In his lab Dr. Hikari just hoped that Sarah knew what she was doing.

"Pathetic.  I bet that won't even get through my DarkAura."

Sarah lifted her head.  The army was complete.  She rushed forward to attack and the army followed.  A flash of light appeared and the navis and their NetOps turned to avoid being blinded.

"Argh!" screamed the original, "How?"

The light subsided and everyone looked forward.  About 5 feet away from the original was Sarah.  Sarah and the original fell to their knees but Sarah carried on and lay onto the floor, dead.

Behind the original was the core data of Sarah.  Pale and transparent like a ghost it said, "I've done all I can.  Lan in my pocket is a Holy Dream chip.  It is the only thing that will destroy her.  I've used the Holy Dream data that was stored within me to destroy her DarkAura.  Now you have to destroy her before it regenerates.

"Lan, tell Mayl and the others.  I was glad they were my friends.  And you two, you were the best brothers I could ask for," she finished as she faded away, "Here is my last gift Hub, don't use it now as you won't be able to use the Holy Dream.  But if you ever need my help."

"A new Soul Union," said Megaman shocked.

"That fool," said Scyler V1.0, "By the time you can use that chip my DarkAura will have regenerated.  She was nothing but Junk Data."

"How dare you talk like that about my sister!" screamed Megaman.  He started to glow and change.

"Could it be?" said Lan, "Style Change!"

Megaman transformed into his Hub Style.  Although it looked like nothing had changed there was a new fire in his eyes.  He started to fire the Megabuster.

"Lan get the chip.  I'll try and stop her DarkAura regenerating," said Megaman.

"Fool, you don't have that kind of power even now!" said Scyler.

"HeartBreaker!"

The attack hit Scyler in the back.  She turned to see Empress ready another one.

"What are you doing?  I am in control of you and your NetOp."

"Not anymore," said Roll, "We recovered from that and we're going to help to kick your butt."

"It still won't be enough!"

"GutsBuster!"

"Glyde Cannon!"

"Sonic Wave!"

"Gutsman, Glyde and Protoman?" said Lan.

"You're not starting without us are you?" said Dex.

"We're going to help you to win this," said Yai.

"I'm the only one allowed to beat you two," said Chaud.

"Guys," said Lan literally knocked speechless.

"You will never have enough power to stop me!"

"Who says?" said a voice, "FireArm!"

"WackoBall!"

"Magic Fire!"

"Spark Strike!"

"FireMan, WackoMan, MagicMan and ElecMan!" exclaimed Lan.

"We're here to take some of the heat!" said Mr. Match.

"You're not going it alone are you?" said Maddy.

"Though one power can be great, many smaller can be greater," said Yahoot.

"Let's rock this place," said Count Zap.

Lan just couldn't find any words to say.

The navis kept up their attack.

"You cannot win!" screamed Scyler.

"I calculate your chances of victory at exactly nothing," said NumberMans voice, "DiceBomb!"

"NumberMan!"

"Hey Lan, you're not giving up are you?" said Higsby, "When we all work together we can do anything.  You showed me that."

Tears appeared in Lan's eyes.

"Nothing you can do will stop me!"

"Her DarkAura is still regenerating," said Roll, "We need more Power!"

"RingRang!"

"Ring!" said Lan.

"She wouldn't have wanted you to give up now Lan would she?" said Mary, "Give it your all!"

"It's still regenerating!" said a navi, "More Power!"

"Fin Cutter!"

"Wood Tower!"

"Bone Boomerang!"

"SharkMan, WoodMan and SkullMan!  Why?" said Lan.

"Don't say you don't need us Lan," said Commander Beef.

"It's not that but…"

"Calm down, we came to stop this thing," said BlackRose.

"Get that chip now," said Mysteriu.

"It's still regenerating," said SharkMan.

"Turbo Wheel!"

"Metal Disk!"

"MetalMan, TurboMan!"

"Why are you so surprised Lan?" said Tamako.

"Where's the rush Scyler?" said Kai.

"It's still not enough!"

"Isn't it," said a voice next to Megaman.  Scyler V5.0 stepped forward.

"Scyler?" said Megaman, "No, your not.  You're, Sarah!"

Sarah/Scyler just nodded and added her fire to the rest. "Lan get that BattleChip now!" she said.

Lan searched her pockets and found the chip.  "Ready Megaman?" asked Lan.

"I was born ready!" said Megaman.

"Battlechip In, Download, Holy Dream Power Up!" said Lan almost breaking the chip with the force he rammed it in.

Megaman held his hands above his head as they started to glow.  He brought them together and they fused into a cannon.  "Holy Dream!" yelled Megaman and Lan. 

The beam went straight for Scyler V1.0.  "No my Power!  You can't do this!" she screamed as the beam hit her.

"We just did," said Megaman.

When the smoke cleared all that was left of the original Scyler was a pile of Junk Data.  The other navis all jacked out after saying goodbye leaving Sarah/Scyler, Megaman and Roll.

"Sarah?  But your dead!" said Megaman.

"Do you think I was that stupid not to back myself up into Scyler.  It's what she was built for," replied Sarah.

"But all the talk, tell them thank you and all that," said Megaman.

"If you knew I wasn't dead, would you have achieved Hub Style?" said Sarah, "If you hadn't been in Hub Style she would have had her DarkAura back in no time."

"Why?"

"Hub Style was designed to combat the Dark Chip, Hub.  Your blaster hit her massively so even though you couldn't destroy her like that it stopped her DarkAura regenerating.  Of course she was right.  If the others hadn't shown up, by the time Lan got the chip and inserted it she would have her DarkAura back."

"But you lied to everyone about your death," said Lan.  Roll and Mayl giggled.  "Everyone but us knew didn't they."

"That was the plan," I emailed most of them last night and a couple after I 'died'."

"So what are you going to do now Sarah," said Mayl.

"That's up to Lan," said Sarah, "If he wants me to go back in my body that's fine but I would like to go back to sleep for a few years and it will take time anyway."

"Why?"

"My body wasn't designed to accept this Scyler model so the two are incompatible.  I can't go in their like this."

Lan stood there.  He had to make a decision that would affect Sarah forever.  And he had treated her like dirt.  He had no right.

"Hey Lan, can you connect up my PET so I can Jack Out please?"

Without thinking Lan connected the PET.  Sarah, Roll and Megaman all Jacked Out.  They all went home.  Lan was still in a daze from the shock that Sarah had given him.  Sarah was acting as if nothing was different even though Lan was carrying her.  He got home and found that his parents already knew.  It shocked him how they accepted it.  He finally broke.

"She gave her life for Megaman!  Doesn't that mean something to you two?" he shouted.

"Um Lan," said Sarah from the PET on the table.

He just broke down into tears.

* * *

(A/N: There will be a few more chapters after this. Mainly Epilogues and a condensed version of Sarah's history. If anyone wants to use Sarah or the ScylerSoul in their own fic feel free but email me first.)


	24. Epilogue 1 Lan

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Epilogue 1 – Lan  
  
Lan lay back on the grass in the park and stared at the sky. The clouds passed by lazily as he thought about the other day.  
  
Sarah's sacrifice had meant a lot to him. She had left the reason for her entire existence in his hands. She was built to destroy Scyler V1.0 and had given that last responsibility to strike the last blow to him and MegaMan.  
  
He fingered the Holy Dream BattleChip. He laughed at a bit of irony he'd realised over the last couple of days. The only chip he could think of to sacrifice for ScylerSoul was the one in his hand.  
  
He lay back and thought of the decision he had to make. He still hadn't made it yet so he was being pressured by his dad who needed to know whether he had to remodel her body or if it could wait.  
  
He thought of Sarah's own decision and thought of her. If he rebuilt her now everyone knew. It wouldn't be the same. He sighed. He knew what he had to do.  
  
Just under 1 year later  
  
Lan stood on the hill again. The hill where he stood on that day. Two graves now lay in front of him. A tear rolled down his cheek. He thought about what his Dad had said the day he'd made his decision.  
  
"You two are two of a kind. A human who became a navi, and a navi that became a human." 


	25. Epilogue 2 Mayl

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Epilogue 2 – Mayl  
  
Just under a Year after Roll's kidnapping  
  
Mayl lay in her room. The memories of Sarah came back to her. It was on this day that Sarah had become Lan's sister. In the few weeks they'd known her she'd touched a lot of people.  
  
She looked over the edge of her bed at her computer where Roll was busy placing a photo on Mayl's Home Page. A tear rolled down her cheek.  
  
Mayl looked over to a small photo on her wall. In the corner of the photo there was a BattleChip. The photo was of her, Lan and Sarah, with their navis superimposed underneath them.  
  
She glanced and the clock and jumped up. There was somewhere she needed to be.  
  
She ran to the small hill and saw Lan on top. She ran up and stood beside him just as he finished speaking. 


	26. Epilogue 3 Sarah

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
Epilogue 3 – Sarah  
  
She'd been waiting for nearly a week now and to be honest was a little fed up of waiting. Lan had better make a decision soon or she was going for a long rest whether he liked it or not. Maybe two or three years of rest would make her feel better.  
  
She sat down on what could be called the floor of her PET. The last few days had been rough. Regardless of Lan's decision her Dad was remodelling the body to be compatible with her. He was also making a hollow spare although he refused to comment on it.  
  
If she was to go to sleep then Dad had promised a system where she could wake up at intervals like before to keep her busting skills sharp. Although she didn't think he'd go to the lengths of actually infecting her PET this time.  
  
Sarah just decided to relax and lay down. Lan would make the right decision. She was sure of it.  
  
That night her Dad came.  
  
"Sarah, Lan's decided to hold a funeral for you. That was the reason for the empty shell. I guessed he'd make the decision. This does mean that you will go into sleep mode again."  
  
Sarah just nodded as her Dad went to push the button.  
  
"Dad, tell Lan and Hub, I really meant what I said," she said.  
  
Dr. Hikari nodded and put Sarah into sleep mode. 


	27. Sarah's History

Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry  
  
History of Sarah  
  
20 years ago  
  
Alpha revolt happened. Authorities discover Alpha was in fact under the control of the AutoNavi projects second attempt. Scyler. Information was withheld to protect the public.  
  
Bass and Scyler escape. The two battle leaving Bass heavily injured. Scyler retreats to lower levels of the undernet. Bass follows absorbing navi data on the way.  
  
18 years ago  
  
Second attempt at Scyler project creates V1.5. This version seemed to have degrading data. Given to Lan's Dad as a science project. First known relationship between human and navi. Creates a strong bond that will only ever be beaten by one other human/navi relationship.  
  
16 years ago  
  
Lan's Dad puts Scyler to rest to prevent data degrading further. Makes a promise that in 15 years will bring her back if he hasn't found a cure.  
  
8 years ago  
  
Lan's Dad starts to take Scyler1.5 on trips to a hospital where he helps physically weak patients by designing navis and programs that will make their lives easier.  
  
Scyler1.5 meets Mary and Ring for the first time.  
  
Ring is infected by Devil Chip. Scyler helps Ring to recover. Ring has web address implanted in memory by Devil Chip. Discovered by Mary when checking Ring was ok. Address reported to Officials.  
  
Present  
  
Promise kept 1 year late. Scyler emails Mary telling about her new body. Name changed to Sarah. 


End file.
